The death of actor Sushant Singh Rajput has opened a can of worms in the Hindi film industry. After more than 40 days of Mumbai Police investigating the case that may have led to the young actor’s suicide, the actor’s father K.K. Singh finally registered a FIR against his girlfriend Rhea Chakraborty and five others on Thursday. The FIR has been lodged in a Patna police station. In the complaint, Chakraborty has been accused of abetment to suicide, theft, wrongful confinement and cheating.
In the last 40 days, the Mumbai Police has interviewed and taken statements of many high-profile people including Sanjay Leela Bhansali, Dharma Productions CEO Apurva Mehta, among many others.
Speaking to THE WEEK, the lawyer of Sushant’s family, Vikas Singh said that Mumbai Police wasn’t really investigating the case. “Because, for an investigation, you require a FIR. There was no FIR. The jurisdiction of the police starts only when there is a cognisable offence. In this case, they haven’t discovered any cognisable offence. I don’t really understand what they were doing by calling everyone from Bollywood and interrogating them for hours together. If there was no offence, then why this harassment of all these people,” says Vikas Singh, accusing the Mumbai Police of wanting to derail the probe. “Now, with an FIR, we are trying to get the case back on track with the Patna Police now investigating it.”
Vikas Singh said that the family took so long to act legally because they were in mourning. “We were also hoping that at some stage the investigation would take the right direction. But we realised that there is no intention of doing that,” says the advocate who was contacted by KK Singh almost 10 days ago.
Besides other things, Sushant’s father has also filed a complaint against Rhea Chakraborty in which he alleges that Rs 15 crores out of Rs 17 crores have been siphoned off by Rhea and her family members from Sushant's bank accounts.
With the new developments, on Friday, former chief minister of Maharashtra Devendra Fadnavis, took to Twitter to appeal to the Maharashtra government for the involvement of the Enforcement Directorate (ED).
There is a huge public sentiment about handing over #SushantSinghRajput case to CBI but looking at the reluctance of State Government, atleast @dir_ed ED can register an ECIR since misappropriation and money laundering angle has come out.
— Devendra Fadnavis (@Dev_Fadnavis) July 31, 2020
In a video, he said now that a new money laundering angle has come to the fore, the ED could at least register an Enforcement Case Information Report (ECIR). "There is a huge public sentiment about handing over #SushantSinghRajput case to CBI but looking at the reluctance of State Government, at least @dir_ed ED can register an ECIR since misappropriation and money laundering angle has come out," Fadnavis said.
@Dev_Fadnavis
— Leena (@Leena39970132) July 31, 2020
Thank you sir You had been always kind Thanks for Supporting Justice
For Sushant. God Bless You #MHGovSoldForSSR pic.twitter.com/csM9bXthe1
On Thursday, a three-judge bench, headed by Chief Justice of India S.A. Bobde, also dismissed a petition seeking a CBI enquiry in the matter. The petition for a CBI enquiry was filed by one Alka Priya.
Meanwhile, a team from the Patna Police is in Mumbai conducting a probe, checking the actor’s bank accounts and interrogating people associated to him.
