New Delhi: The Bihar government has told the Supreme Court that the Mumbai Police is not cooperating in the investigation into actor Sushant Singh Rajput’s death.
During a hearing Wednesday, the Supreme Court was informed by the central government that it was willing to hand over the case to the CBI and it had, in principle, accepted the Bihar government’s request to transfer the probe.
The court had then given three days’ time to all parties — Maharashtra and Bihar governments as well as Chakraborty and Rajput’s families — to file a reply.
In its reply filed Thursday, the Bihar government also accused the Mumbai Police of siding with actor Rhea Chakraborty, who was said to be in a relationship with Rajput and has been accused of abetting his alleged suicide.
Last month, Rajput’s father had filed an FIR against Chakraborty and her family members in Patna. The FIR includes sections 341 (punishment for wrongful restraint), 342 (punishment for wrongful confinement), 380 (theft in dwelling house), 406 (punishment for criminal breach of trust), 420 (cheating and dishonestly inducing delivery of property) and 306 (abetment of suicide) of the Indian Penal Code (IPC).
In light of this FIR, a four-member special investigation team was sent from Patna to Mumbai on 27 July to probe the case. Later, on 2 August, Superintendent of Police, Patna (Central), Vinay Tiwari was also sent to Mumbai. Tiwari was, however, sent into quarantine.
The Bihar government’s response, filed through advocate Keshav Mohan Thursday, said the Mumbai Police had been non-cooperative ever since.
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It alleged that Tiwari’s quarantine “is nothing but a result of afterthought on part of Mumbai Police aimed at obstructing the investigation by the Patna Police”.
“The aforesaid fact casts a serious aspersion on the role of Mumbai Police,” it added.
The Bihar government also told the court that the Mumbai Police had not provided the Patna Police with any documents, such as the inquest report, post mortem report, CCTV footage etc, despite several requests by the latter.
Mumbai Police ‘making lame excuses’
The Bihar government’s response also stated that the Mumbai Police has “been making lame excuses” about Patna Police not having jurisdiction in the case.
The government referred to Section 179 of the Code of Criminal Procedure, which states that an offence can be tried where “act is done or consequence ensues”.
“It is most respectfully submitted that in the present case the victim is the informant Mr. Krishna Kishore Singh who has lost his young, vibrant son due to acts committed by the accused persons including the petitioner herein. Hence, the Patna Police has jurisdiction to register the FIR and the court at Patna has jurisdiction to try the offence,” the reply noted.
The Bihar government submitted that it was after its preliminary investigation that it had recommended a CBI probe into the case.
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