On Monday, as news broke of a Bihar IPS officer probing actor Sushant Singh Rajput's death being "forcibly quarantined" by civic authorities in Mumbai, Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar blasted the incident. "Whatever happened with him [the IPS officer] is not right. It is not political. The Bihar police is only just carrying out its duty," he said, adding that Bihar DGP Gupteshwar Pandey will speak with the authorities there.
The Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) countered the accusations, saying that the officer was 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 the state government notification of May 25. A team guided him to apply for exemption in home quarantine period," the BMC stated.
Pandey had tweeted that Patna IPS officer Vinay Tiwari has been "forcibly quarantined" by civic authorities in the metropolis. Tiwari is heading a Bihar police team which is in Mumbai to investigate an ''abetment to suicide'' case on the basis of a complaint filed by the late actor's father in Patna. "IPS officer Vinay Tiwari reached Mumbai today from Patna on official duty to lead the police team, but he has been forcibly quarantined by BMC officials at 11pm," Bihar Director General of Police (DGP) Pandey tweeted.
Last month, Rajput's father had lodged an FIR of abetment to suicide naming actress Rhea Chakraborty, said to be close to the deceased Patna-born actor, and her family members as accused. Tiwari was posted as the City SP (East) in Patna.
The Mumbai police, which is also probing the death case, have so far recorded statements of nearly 40 people, including those from Rajput's family, his cook and people from the film industry that include filmmaker Mahesh Bhatt, film critic Rajeev Masand, director-producer Sanjay Leela Bhansali and filmmaker Aditya Chopra.
The case had devolved into a tiff between the two states, with Maharashtra Minister of State for Home Shambhuraj Desai saying that the Bihar police team in Mumbai did not follow established protocols. "Whenever a police team from a state visits another state for investigation, there are some protocols which are to be followed.. These were not followed," Desai told a news channel.
-Inputs from PTI