The Bihar government on Thursday filed a caveat in the Supreme Court to oppose actor Rhea Chakraborty’s attempts to transfer the case filed against her in connection with Sushant Singh Rajput’s death from Patna to Mumbai, The Times of India reported.
“Senior Supreme Court advocate Mukul Rohatgi will appear for the Bihar government whenever the case gets listed for hearing,” Bihar Government Advocate General Lalit Kishore told the newspaper. “We have moved the apex court on the ground that the FIR [against Chakraborty] was registered correctly and the state government has the jurisdiction and power to investigate the case.”
The Nitish Kumar-led government has been criticised by opposition leaders and allies alike for not helping the actor’s family in the case.
On Thursday, Rajput’s father had urged the top court to hear him first before deciding on transferring Chakraborty’s case to Mumbai. Rajput’s father had filed a first information report against Chakraborty in Patna, on Wednesday, accusing her of harassing and cheating him and driving him to suicide.
The Supreme Court on Thursday also dismissed a petition to transfer the investigation into Rajput’s death to the Central Bureau of Investigation.
Rajput was found dead in his apartment in Mumbai on June 14, in what the police said was a case of suicide.
Enforcement Directorate may probe money laundering angle
The Enforcement Directorate on Thursday sought details of the FIR filed by Rajput’s father against Chakraborty and her family members to look into a suspicious transaction worth Rs 15 crore, NDTV reported.
“No PMLA [Prevention of Money Laundering Act] case has been registered by ED yet,” unidentified probe agency officials told the news channel. “We have just sought case details from Bihar Police. A decision regarding initiating money laundering probe will be made after examining the details and documents from Bihar Police.”
Chakraborty says accusations against her false
Chakraborty, in her petition in the Supreme Court to transfer the case to Mumbai, claimed that the allegations made by Rajput’s father against her were “entirely false and concocted with ulterior motive”, according to India Today.
The actor claimed that Rajput’s father “has substantial influence at Patna” and that will affect the investigation in the case.
The actor also told the top court that she was in a live-in relationship with Rajput for a year but temporarily moved to her own home on June 8, just days before he died by suicide.
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