SC is hearing Rhea Chakraborty's petition seeking direction for transfer of investigation from Patna to Mumbai
Centre on Wednesday informed the Supreme Court that Bihar government's recommendation for CBI probe into the death of actor Sushant Singh Rajput has been accepted.
According to reports, Solicitor General Tushar Mehta stated before the apex court that Centre has accepted the Bihar government’s request recommending CBI enquiry into the death case.
Solicitor General Tushar Mehta states before Supreme Court that Centre has accepted Bihar govt's request recommending CBI enquiry into #SushantSinghRajput death case.
— ANI (@ANI) August 5, 2020
SC is hearing Rhea Chakraborty's petition seeking direction for transfer of investigation from Patna to Mumbai. pic.twitter.com/YTlUPvBOQn
The apex court also said that quarantining of police officer, who arrived in Mumbai from Bihar to lead the investigation, does not send a good message when there is so much attention on the case.
“Quarantining of the Bihar Police officer has not sent good message despite the fact that Mumbai Police has good professional reputation,” the top court said while hearing actor Rhea Chakraborty's petition.
Vikas Singh, lawyer of Sushant Singh Rajput's father, told Supreme Court that quarantine (of Bihar IPS officer Vinay Tiwari in Mumbai) is only to destroy the evidence. He also pleaded for a direction to Mumbai police to cooperate with Bihar police in the case.
Meanwhile, on Rhea Chakraborty's petition seeking direction for transfer of investigation from Patna to Mumbai, the top Court asked the Mumbai police to submit a status report on probe within three days.
Actor Rhea Chakraborty had filed a plea in the Supreme Court seeking the transfer of an FIR - from Patna to Mumbai - accusing her of abetting in fellow actor Sushant Singh Rajput's alleged suicide in June.
The FIR, filed by Bihar police on a complaint by Rajput's father, alleges that Chakraborty illegally transferred Rs 15 crore from Rajput's Mumbai bank account and mentally harassed him.
Chakraborty, who was reportedly Rajput's girlfriend at the time of his death, has challenged Bihar police's jurisdiction in the matter, given that the alleged crime took place in Maharashtra.
In her plea, Chakraborty said that it was becoming "increasingly evident that the FIR was successfully filed in Patna only due to intervention of the Chief Minister of Bihar and other local politicians". The plea also said the actress has a "strong prima facie case in her favour as it is submitted the cause of action has not even remotely occurred within Patna".
The governments of both Bihar and Maharashtra have been made parties in the plea, as has Rajput's father, Krishna Kishore Singh. The state governments have already filed a caveat seeking to be heard by the top court before any order is passed.
The hearing, before a bench led by Justice Hrishikesh Roy, will be keenly followed by Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar, who has recommended that the CBI take over the case. A Bihar police team has been camped in Mumbai since Wednesday last week.
Maharashtra Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray and Home Minister Anil Deshmukh had both earlier ruled out a CBI investigation.
Mumbai police, which has said it will investigate all avenues, has also said that Mr Rajput suffered from bipolar disorder. Meanwhile, Bihar Police are insistent that they will follow the money trail, as well as the alleged suicide of the actor's former manager, Disha Salian, who died six days before him.
Last week, the Enforcement Directorate had registered a money laundering case over the FIR filed by Bihar police.
Meanwhile, two public interest litigations (PILs) have been filed in the apex court seeking a CBI probe into the death of Bollywood actor.
The two PILs, one by lawyer Ajay Agarwal and the other by Mumbai-based law student Dwivendra Devtadeen Dubey, have been filed even as Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar sent a recommendation to the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) to take up the case filed by Sushant's father in Patna.
Sushant was found dead at his residence in Bandra in Mumbai on June 14.
Agarwal, who has pursued the politically-sensitive Bofors scam in the top court, has urged the apex court to issue direction to the CBI to take up the investigations into the death of the Bollywood actor.
In his plea, he said that the upcoming Bollywood film star "was found dead in mysterious circumstances. Mumbai police immediately declared it a case of suicide. But nobody could swallow this theory of suicide of a bright upcoming star who played a lead role in the film on M.S. Dhoni".
The lawyer argued that though the apex court bench, headed by Chief Justice S.A. Bobde, had, on July 30, already rejected a PIL seeking CBI probe into the matter, there have been further developments since then.
Agarwal said the media is reporting extensively on Sushant's mysterious death and there is also unsavoury war of words between Bihar's Director General of Police, Gupteshwar Pandey and Maharashtra Police officers. He insisted that there is something fishy in the investigation of Mumbai Police and it seems that "it wants to hide and suppress some material facts which are necessary for impartial and fair investigation of the case".
"That is why the present Maharashtra government is shy of recommending a CBI inquiry into the matter wherein its act in this matter is under a cloud," he argued.
Agarwal urged the top court to issue direction to the CBI to take up the investigation in the death of Sushant and the events which led to his untimely death in the case registered in Mumbai as well as in Patna.
"Bihar government, in the early hours today (Tuesday) has recommended a CBI inquiry into this matter but the Maharashtra government may not agree for the CBI inquiry of Sushant Singh death case in its state. Therefore a uniform CBI inquiry in the Mumbai case as well as the FIR lodged in Patna in Sushant Singh death case is necessary for the actual truth to come out in the matter," added the plea.
(With inputs from agencies)
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