IPS officer Vinay Tiwari after arriving in Mumbai. (PTI)
Bihar Director General of Police Gupteshwar Pandey Thursday warned of legal action if IPS officer Vinay Tiwari, who was sent to Mumbai to monitor the investigation into actor Sushant Singh Rajput’s death, is not released from 14-day home quarantine by the end of the day, PTI reported.
Tiwari was quarantined by the BMC with his hand-stamped, indicating isolation period till August 15, after he reached Mumbai on August 2.
Earlier, on Wednesday afternoon, Pandey tweeted that the BMC has denied Tiwari’s request. Patna Inspector General of Police Sanjay Singh had written to the BMC commissioner opposing Tiwari’s mandatory quarantine and requested his release, which has been rejected. The BMC, in its reply to Patna Police, had said Tiwari, while being in home quarantine, can use digital platforms to meet people and conduct his work.
“In a view of prevailing coronavirus pandemic situation in Bihar, it is advised that the officer can conduct his proceedings with various concerned officials of the Govt of Maharashtra on digital platforms such as Zoom/Google Meet/Jio Meet/ Microsoft Teams or other such digital platforms to interact. This will not only ensure that the officer does not transmit the infection (if at all he is asymptomatic) to the officials with whom he will contract,” the BMC letter to Bihar Police stated.
Pandey had earlier claimed Sunday that civic officials “forcibly” quarantined Tiwari at 11 pm at a Goregaon guesthouse within a few hours of his arrival on a domestic flight. The BMC had clarified that Tiwari was quarantined for 14 days as per protocol issued by the state government on May 25 and he should apply to the BMC for exemption of home quarantine period. The BMC, however, did not quarantine four other police officers from Bihar, who came to Mumbai on July 17 in connection with the case.
The Supreme Court Wednesday expressed its displeasure over a Bihar Police officer who had come to Mumbai, as part of the investigation into the FIR, being put in quarantine. The single-judge Bench of Justice Hrishikesh Roy said, “… a very unfortunate thing has taken place. A very gifted and talented artist has passed away under circumstances that are unusual. Whether there is any criminality in the situation is the matter to be investigated… When something happens to a high-profile name in cinema, everyone has an opinion. But as a court we have to work according to what the law says.”
The 34-year-old actor was found dead inside his Bandra residence on June 14 last and an FIR was lodged by his father K K Singh, who resides in Patna, at a local police station on July 25. A tug of war ensued between the governments of the two states with Maharashtra contending that Bihar had no jurisdiction in the matter since the death took place outside the state. A petition contending the same was also filed in the Supreme Court by actress Rhea Chakraborty, who along with her family members has been named as the main accused in the FIR lodged by Rajput’s father. She has been accused of abetting the actor’s suicide, keeping him in wrongful confinement, and defrauding him of crores of rupees.
The probe has now been handed over to the CBI, the Centre informed the court, saying it had accepted the Bihar government’s recommendation for the same.