The Bihar government on Friday told the Supreme Court that the transfer petition filed by actress Rhea Chakraborty in connection with the Sushant Singh Rajput case is “misconceived and not maintainable”.
The affidavit has been filed after the top court sought response from the Bihar government on the petition filed by Rhea Chakraborty seeking transfer of the case from Patna to Mumbai. The case was filed by the late actor’s father accusing Rhea and several others for abetment to suicide.
The state government told the top court that it has the jurisdiction to investigate the matter.
“The submission of the petitioner (Rhea Chakraborty) that the entire cause of action arose in Mumbai and the State of Bihar has no jurisdiction to register FIR is liable to be rejected in view of the provisions under section 179 of CrPC,” the affidavit stated.
The state government further informed the Supreme Court that the Mumbai Police has been obstructing the investigation into the Sushant Singh Rajput case by Patna police and have not supplied crucial documents connected with the case.
“The non-cooperation by the Mumbai Police with the Patna Police, who is already there in Mumbai for a probe, is very much clear from the fact that the Mumbai Police has not supplied any documents such as Inquest Report, Post Mortem report, FSL report, CCTV footage etc. to the Patna Police despite several requests made by the latter,” said the affidavit.
The Bihar government said Krishna Kishore Singh lost his young, vibrant son due to act committed by the accused persons including Rhea. Hence, the Patna police has jurisdiction to register the FIR and the court at Patna has jurisdiction to try the offence as mentioned in the FIR registered with Rajeev Nagar PS (Patna).
The state government also contended that when IPS officer Vinay Tiwary reached Mumbai, he was forcibly quarantined by the civic body BMC, which casts serious aspersion on the role of Mumbai Police who is apparently siding with the petitioner.
The state government said the Mumbai Police has been making “lame excuses” that it has jurisdiction to investigate the offence despite the fact that no cognizable case has been registered in Mumbai in connection with death of Sushant Singh Rajput.
“That even without little support from the Mumbai Police, the members of the SIT carried out investigation wherein various witnesses have been examined and the Kotak Bank account details of the deceased actor has been verified, the details whereof has been mentioned in the FIR with regard to siphoning of money by the petitioner and other accused persons,” said the affidavit.
The state government said in the present case, the Patna Police has jurisdiction to register the FIR and investigate it as per the law laid down by the Constitution Bench of the top court in Lalita Kumari Vs. the State of Uttar Pradesh reported in (2014) case.
The Supreme Court had on Wednesday observed that it is unfortunate that a gifted artist like Sushant Singh Rajput passed away under unusual circumstances and the truth in the matter should come out.
Justice Hrishikesh Roy, hearing the arguments on a plea by Sushant’s girlfriend Rhea Chakraborty seeking transfer of the case from Patna to Mumbai, said “very unfortunate incident has taken place”.
The judge also added that it needs to be investigated whether there was any criminality involved in the matter.
During the hearing, Rhea Chakraborty’s counsel had asked the top court to grant her interim protection.
Opposing the plea, Vikas Singh, lawyer of Sushant Singh Rajput’s father, told the Supreme Court that evidence was being tampered with, and now, after the Centre has informed the court about the CBI inquiry into the matter then her petition does not survive.
Stating that “It is in everyone’s interest that the truth should be unraveled,” the top court also pulled up the Maharashtra government for quarantining for 14 days Bihar Police IPS officer Vinay Tiwari, who has been tasked with heading the probe in the matter.
Posting the matter for further hearing next week, the Supreme Court sought a status report from Mumbai Police on its probe so far into the actor’s death.
The top court also sought a status report from the state governments of Bihar and Maharashtra, the Centre and Sushant Singh Rajput’s father and directed them to file their responses to Chakraborty’s petition in three days.
The Bihar Police had filed an FIR against Chakraborty on a complaint by the Sushant Singh’s father, alleging that she illegally transferred Rs 15 crore from the actor’s Mumbai bank account and mentally harassed him.
However, the Maharashtra government has stated that the FIR by Patna police is “politically motivated and that it does not have any jurisdiction.”
The 34-year-old actor 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.
Meanwhile, the Centre has accepted Bihar government’s request recommending CBI enquiry into the alleged suicide of the actor.
Earlier on Thursday, a day after the Centre asked the agency to probe the death of Bollywood actor Sushant Singh Rajput, the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) registered a case against six persons, including Rhea Chakraborty and her family members, on the basis of the FIR filed by Bihar Police on his family’s complaint.
Now, the CBI has handed the case over to its Special Investigation Team (SIT) branch, which earlier investigated the high profile cases like Rs 3,600 crore AgustaWestland VVIP chopper deal, and liquor baron Vijay Mallya bank fraud case.
In another development, the Enforcement Directorate earlier today grilled Rhea Chakraborty in connection with a money laundering probe related to the late actor.
On July 31, the ED had registered a money laundering case against Rhea and her family members. The case pertains to “suspicious transactions” worth Rs 15 crore in connection allegedly from the late actor’s account.
Sushant’s father KK Singh filed an FIR in Patna on July 25, accusing Rhea, Indrajit Chakraborty, Sandhya Chakraborty, Showik Chakraborty, Samuel Miranda and Shruti Modi of abetment to suicide, fraud and holding Sushant hostage.