The arrest comes after the central agency questioned Rhea for the past three days. (Express photo)Nearly three months after the death of actor Sushant Singh Rajput, the Narcotics Control Bureau (NCB) on Tuesday arrested actress Rhea Chakraborty in a drugs case. She is the tenth person to be arrested in the case. Her brother Showik, Rajput’s former cook Dipesh Sawant and former housekeeper Samuel Miranda have already been arrested in the case.
The arrest comes after the central agency questioned Rhea for the past three days. On Monday, Rhea was confronted with her brother, Samuel Miranda and cook Dipesh Sawant.
The death of Rajput, who had died by suicide on June 14, has seen many twists and turns so far. Here’s a look at everything that has happened in the case so far.
Here’s looking at what has happened in the case so far:
Sushant Singh Rajput’s death and investigation by Mumbai Police
Sushant Rajput was found dead at his apartment in Mumbai’s Bandra on June 14. The initial investigation done by the Mumbai Police revealed that prima facie it was a case of suicide. However, no suicide note was found. The provisional post mortem report revealed that the cause of death was asphyxia due to hanging.
Sushant’s death came as a shock to the film industry, with many of his colleagues and friends in the industry mourning the loss of the budding artist. His death triggered a debate on the importance of mental health and depression but it was soon overshadowed by actor Kangana Ranaut’s accusations of nepotism prevelant in the film industry.
Over the course of next one month, the Mumbai Police recorded statements of Sushant’s aides, managerial staff, his psychiatrist, and directors and film personalities, including Sanjay Leela Bhansali, Aditya Chopra, Shekhar Kapur, Karan Johar and Rhea Chakraborty. In her statement, Chakraborty had claimed that Rajput was upset over the nature of his contract with a leading film production house.
On July 23, she had sought a CBI probe into his death. Tagging Union Home Minister Amit Shah, she had tweeted: “Respected @AmitShah sir, I’m Sushant Singh Rajput’s girlfriend Rhea Chakraborty, it is now over a month since his sudden demise. I have complete faith in the government. However, in the interest of justice, I request you with folded hands to initiate a CBI enquiry into this matter. I only want to understand what pressures prompted Sushant to take this step.”
FIR against Rhea Chakraborty, case lands in Supreme Court
However, five days later, an FIR was registered in Patna against Rhea Chakraborty and five others, including three of her family members, for abetment of suicide, on the complaint of Sushant’s father Krishna Kishor Singh. Besides Chakraborty, the others named in the FIR are three of her relatives — Indrajit Chakraborty, Sandhya Chakraborty and Shobhik Chakraborty, and two others – Samuel Miranda and Shruti Modi.
“My son was at the peak of his acting career till May 2019. During that period, Rhea and her relatives developed an acquaintance with my son, under a deliberate conspiracy, so that Rhea could establish herself in the film industry and with an eye on Sushant’s wealth… He was later made to rent a house that was haunted, and that had an impact on my son,” K K Singh, said in the FIR.
The FIR was filed under IPC Sections 306 (abetment of suicide), 341 (wrongful restraint), 342 (wrongful confinement), 380 (theft in dwelling house), 406 (criminal breach of trust) and 420 (cheating).
Actor Sushant Singh Rajput with Rhea Chakraborty.
A day after the FIR was registered, a four member team of Bihar Police left for Mumbai on July 29. The same day, Chakraborty moved the Supreme Court, seeking to transfer the Patna FIR to Mumbai, claiming Bihar did not have jurisdiction in the matter. Sushant’s family and Maharashtra government filed caveats in the the top court on Chakraborty’s petition.
Mumbai Police vs Bihar Police
On August 2, Bihar DGP Gupteshwar Pandey said IPS officer Vinay Tiwari had been sent to Mumbai to monitor the Patna Police investigation. He also claimed that the Mumbai Police did not handed over postmortem and forensic reports to Patna Police.
IPS officer Vinay Tiwari after arriving in Mumbai. (PTI)
On August 3, the investigation turned into a bitter battle between Mumbai and Bihar police after Tiwari alleged that he was “selectively quarantined” till August 15 after his arrival in Mumbai. “I did point out that I am a police officer on duty and there are exceptions to the quarantine rules. Four other members of my team have been in Mumbai since July 27. They have been out in the field every day… No one from the BMC approached them… I have been selectively home-quarantined,” he said.
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Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar said the treatment meted out to Tiwari was “not proper” as he went there to do his duty. Bihar DGP said a team had examined the quarantine guidelines of Maharashtra government and asserted that the quarantine was not needed. In reply, the BMC said Tiwari was quarantined as per the rules for domestic air travellers.
ED starts probe against Rhea, family
On July 31, the Enforcement Directorate (ED) registered an Enforcement Case Information Report (ECIR) based on the FIR lodged K K Singh in Patna, accusing Rhea and her family members of cheating and siphoning funds of about Rs 15 crore from Sushant’s bank accounts.
On August 7, the ED questioned Rhea for about eight hours pertaining to the investment made by her and her family in the two companies floated by Rajput. The agency also quizzed her brother Showik. Both Rhea and Showik are directors in two firms floated by Rajput — Front India For World Foundation and Vividrage Rhealityx Private Limited.
Rhea Chakraborty arrives at the ED office in Mumbai. (Photo by Ganesh Shirsekar)
Rhea was also quizzed about her properties in Mumbai and was asked to submit papers pertaining to the purchase of these assets. Sources said Rhea had denied siphoning funds from Rajput’s accounts.
However, a week later, the ED contended that it had not found any “substantial direct transfers” from the late actor’s account to Chakraborty or her family members, sources familiar with the case told The Indian Express. These withdrawals amount to Rs 55 lakh and were from Rajput’s primary account with Kotak Bank.
Sources said the agency is tracking the trail of these withdrawals. His account had about Rs 15 crore at the beginning of the last financial year and was used to make tax and travel-related payments, among other things, sources said. The agency found that Rhea Chakraborty was not a joint account holder in any of Rajput’s bank accounts.
The ED also questioned Rajput’s chartered accountant Sandeep Sridhar and his house manager Samuel Miranda, who is said to have been hired by Rhea. The agency also summoned her CA Ritesh Shah.
Fight moves to Supreme Court
The Supreme Court took up Chakraborty’s petition for transfer of the case on August 5 and made the Centre, Bihar and Maharashtra governments, and Mumbai Police parties to the case. The top court asked all parties to file their affidavits, saying “whether there is any criminality in the situation is the matter to be investigated”.
Another PIL was filed in the top court demanding a court-monitored CBI probe into the death of Disha Salian, Sushant’s former manager, claiming that both cases were inter-linked.
In its affidavit, the Bihar government sought dismissal of Chakraborty’s plea, stating that it was “premature, misconceived and non-maintainable”. The affidavit said in criminal proceedings, the concept of jurisdiction cannot be applied like civil cases. In the affidavit, police also said that Rajput’s father had claimed in his FIR that Chakraborty had met his son in 2019 with the sole intention to “grab crores of rupees”.
The police also said that the “forcible quarantine” of Bihar IPS officer Vinay Tiwari in Mumbai “casts a serious aspersion on the role of Mumbai Police who is apparently siding with” Chakraborty “for the reasons best known to them.”
In its affidavit, the Mumbai Police stated that the CBI was acting in an “indecent haste” in taking over the probe into Rajput’s death. Mumbai Police also said that Sushant’s father had not requested them at any point of time to register an FIR despite knowing that they were probing the case.
The affidavit contended that the statements of all the close relatives of the deceased, including his father, recorded “as soon as possible after the said death” demonstrate that none of them had any suspicion about the suicide committed by the deceased or against anybody whosoever in that regard”.
In his affidavit, Rajput’s father K K Singh alleged that the Maharashtra police investigation into his son’s death was an “eyewash” and the authorities were “trying to shield” Rhea Chakraborty, against whom the family has raised suspicions.
Singh said it “is rather unfortunate” that Maharashtra “has undermined the feelings of a father who lives in Patna and who has sufficient proof and belief that it is due to the petitioner’s continued criminal actions for over a period of one year that has caused the death of his only son”.
Rhea alleges ‘state interference’
On August 10, Rhea Chakraborty submitted before the Supreme Court that Bihar Police had no jurisdiction in Sushant’s death case, and had usurped it “under political pressure”. She also called Bihar Police’s move to seek a CBI probe in the matter “illegal and bad in law”.
She contended that the reason Bihar Police sought a probe by CBI is “known”: “as the ruling party in Bihar and Centre is the same and the said party is in minority in the state of Maharashtra”.
She stated that Rajput came from Bihar, and his death is being used ahead of the elections in the state. She claimed that the Bihar CM is “reported to be responsible for registration of the FIR in Patna”.
On August 10, Rhea Chakraborty submitted before the Supreme Court that Bihar Police had no jurisdiction in Sushant’s death case, and had usurped it “under political pressure”. (Photo: Rhea Chakraborty/Instagram)
On August 13, the Centre filed its affidavit in the case, stating that statements of witnesses said to have been recorded by Mumbai Police have “no validity or legal sanctity”, as the state is yet to file an FIR in the matter.
The state also stated it is “apparent” that due to “political pressure” in Maharashtra, neither was an FIR registered by Mumbai Police nor did the local police extend “any cooperation” to Bihar Police.
On August 13, the CBI filed its submission in the apex court, urging it to allow continuation of the investigation in the death case.
Chakraborty filed a fresh statement in the apex court, saying that the financial transactions of the actor were “crystal clear and there was nothing incriminating against her”. She also alleged that Sushant’s sister Priyanka once “groped” her while being drunk.
On the alleged involvement of Aaditya Thackeray, Shiv Sena leader and Maharashtra minister, in the case, Rhea said she did not know him personally and has never met him.
On August 19, the Supreme Court held that the FIR registered in Patna was legitimate and ordered the CBI to investigate the case. It also said that the Bihar government was competent to recommend transferring the case to the CBI.
CBI begins probe, Mumbai Police says investigation to continue
After the apex court order sanctioning a CBI inquiry, the Mumbai Police said on August 20 that its inquiry into the case will continue keeping in view the court order. “The SC order says that if during our inquiry, a cognizable offence is disclosed, we should transfer it to the CBI. This will be duly followed. The SC order was primarily about the transfer of the FIR registered by Bihar Police to Mumbai Police. It was not about the inquiry that is being conducted by the Bandra police,” it said.
Meanwhile, the CBI team questioned Rhea, Rajput’s two staff members, and house manager Samuel Miranda over the course of next few days. The CBI also reconstructed the sequence of events that took place on June 14 and referred Rajput’s postmortem report from Cooper hospital to a team of doctors at AIIMS, Delhi.
Narcotics case against Rhea Chakraborty, three others
On August 26, the Narcotics Control Bureau (NCB) filed a criminal case against actor Rhea Chakraborty and three of her acquaintances under several sections of the Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances (NDPS) Act, claiming proof about consumption of banned substances.
According to officials, the NCB investigation was launched after the Enforcement Directorate (ED) alerted them about purported WhatsApp conversations between Chakraborty and others regarding cannabidiol, LSD, MDMA and marijuana.
Showik Chakraborty arrives for questioning at the Narcotics Control Bureau office in Mumbai on Friday. (Photo by Ganesh Shirsekar)
The three others booked apart from Chakraborty included Samuel Miranda, who has been questioned by the ED in connection with its probe into a money laundering angle in actor Sushant Singh Rajput’s death.
The NCB arrested two persons, Abbas Lakhani and Karn Arora, on the intervening night of August 27-28, and seized ‘bud’ from their possession. NCB further nabbed Basit Parihar, Kaizan Ebrahim, and Zaid Vilatra, claiming they links with Rhea’s brother Showik and Samuel Miranda.
While seeking their remand, NCB revealed before a city court that Parihar used to procure drugs as per the instructions of Showik Chakraborty. The NCB, in its remand application, also claimed that Vilatra had revealed the names of many people whom he was allegedly dealing in drugs with. It added that based on disclosures made Lakhani and Arora, Vilatra’s premises were searched and Rs 9.55 lakh found along with foreign currency, including dollars, pounds and dirhams. The agency told the court that the money was suspected to be sale proceeds of contraband for supply of marijuana.
NCB arrests Rhea, Showik, Miranda
On September 4, Showik and Samuel Miranda were arrested by the NCB for allegedly procuring non-commercial quantity of marijuana/ ganja from an alleged drug supplier at least 10-12 times. They were sent to judicial custody till September 9. Rajput’s former cook Dipesh Sawant was arrested by NCB in the case the very next day.
Rhea Chakraborty at the NCB office in Mumbai’s Ballard Pier (Express photo)
On September 6, Rhea appeared before the NCB for questioning. Following his questioning, Rhea was heckled and pushed by the media as she made her way to the NCB office, escorted by Mumbai Police. This led to outrage as several members of the film industry calling it “disgusting”.
After three days of questioning, Rhea was finally arrested on September 8, making her the tenth person to be held in the case. Calling her arrest a “travesty of justice”, her lawyer Satish Maneshinde said, “Three central agencies hounding a single woman just because she was in love with a drug addict who was suffering from mental health issues for several years and committed suicide due to consumption of illegally administered medicines, drugs.”
Rhea’s arrest came a day after she had approached the Mumbai police with a complaint against Rajput’s sister Priyanka Singh and a doctor for allegedly getting him psychiatric medication without consultation and using forged paperwork. The Mumbai police on Tuesday registered an FIR in the case.