In a major turn of events in the controversial Sushant Singh Rajput suicide case, Bihar Police IPS officer Vinay Tiwari, who has been tasked with heading the probe in the matter, has been allegedly forcibly quarantined by the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) hours after he arrived in the city to expedite the investigation.
Bihar DGP Gupteshwar Pandey has tweeted that Tiwari was forcibly quarantined on Sunday even before the IPS officer could initiate his probe.
Pandey tweeted: “IPS officer Vinay Tiwari arrived Mumbai today on official duty to lead his police team from Patna but he was forcibly quarantined by the BMC officers at around 11 p.m. Earlier, he was not given a place in the IPS mess when he said that he is staying in a guest house in Goregaon.”
He also tweeted a video of the Bihar IPS officer.
ये हैं बिहार cadre के IPS अधिकारी विनय तिवारी जिनको मुंबई में आज रात में 11 बजे रात में ज़बरदस्ती क्वोरंटीन कर दिया गया.SSR केस में जाँच करनेवाली टीम का नेतृत्व करने गए थे.अब ये यहाँ से कहीं निकल नहीं सकते!@IPSVinayTiwari pic.twitter.com/6Le4AXjuJ8
— IPS Gupteshwar Pandey (@ips_gupteshwar) August 2, 2020
However, the BMC has claimed that Tiwari has been quarantined as per the present guidelines for domestic arrivals at Mumbai Airport.
“The administration got information of arrival of a Bihar Police officer yesterday. Being a domestic air traveller, he needed to be guided for home quarantine as per state government notification of May 25. A team guided him to apply for exemption in home quarantine period as per government notification, the BMC was quoted as saying by ANI.
Meanwhile, the Bihar DGP told news agency ANI that the state police is trying to speak with the DGP and other officials in Mumbai.
Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar has also taken note of the incident stating that “whatever happened with IPS officer Vinay Tiwari is not right”.
“It is not political, Bihar Police is carrying out its duty. Our DGP will speak to them,” the chief minister told reporters today morning.
Tiwari arrived in Mumbai on Sunday afternoon. He was received at the airport by his four colleagues, who have been in the city for the past few days trying to make a headway into the probe that has been with the city police for the last over 45 days.
At the airport itself, Tiwari had said that the investigation into Sushant’s death was moving in the right direction.
He then went to a guest house in Goregaon with the other four where he had a long chat with them. On Monday, he was to meet DCP Abhishek Trimukhe of Bandra Zone-9. Trimukhe is looking after the case.
Now, Tiwari will be quarantined till August 15. The BMC, however, did not disclosed his whereabouts.
The Bihar Police is probing a separate ”abetment to suicide” case on the basis of a complaint filed by the late actor’s father in Patna.
Last Friday, Bihar Deputy Chief Minister Sushil Modi had attacked the Mumbai Police saying that they are not cooperating with the Bihar Police in the probe related to the alleged suicide of actor Sushant Singh Rajput.
Taking to Twitter, the Deputy CM said,”Mumbai Police is putting an obstruction in the way of a fair investigation by the Bihar Police in the Sushant Singh Rajput’s death case.”
“Bihar Police is doing its best but Mumbai Police is not cooperating with the team. BJP feels that the CBI should take over the case,” he added.
Meanwhile, Maharashtra Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray has slammed the demands for a CBI probe by the Opposition and some Bollywood personalities in the Sushant Singh Rajput case, and asserted that the state police was capable of probing the actor’s death in June.
Rajput, 34, was found hanging from the ceiling of his apartment in suburban Bandra in Mumbai on June 14 and since then the police have been probing the case keeping in mind various angles. Rejecting any foul play, the final post-mortem report had stated that Sushant died of asphyxia as a result of hanging.