The Bihar government on Tuesday recommended a Central Bureau of Investigation probe into actor Sushant Singh Rajput’s death, ANI reported. Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar told the news agency that the state’s director general of police spoke to Rajput’s father KK Singh, who gave his approval for a CBI probe.
On Monday, Rajput’s father had accused the Mumbai Police of inaction in the case. “On February 25, I informed Bandra Police that he [Rajput] is in danger,” Singh told ANI. “He died on June 14 and I asked them to act against people named in my complaint. No action was taken even 40 days after his death. So I filed an FIR [first information report] in Patna.” However, the police had refuted the allegations.
The Nationalist Congress Party and the Congress in Maharashtra, meanwhile, rejected the recommendation of a CBI inquiry, saying the move encroached upon the rights of another state, PTI reported. They said it would help the Bharatiya Janata Party in the “destruction” of the Constitution.
NCP national spokesperson Nawab Malik said Kumar was “probably trying to divert attention from its failure in combating the coronavirus outbreak in Bihar”. He added that the decision of the Bihar government undermines the federal structure of India.
“Do they [Bihar government] have jurisdiction over a crime that has taken place in Maharashtra?” Malik said. “Tomorrow, suppose a case is registered against a person living in Mumbai for a crime that has taken place in Uttar Pradesh, will the Maharashtra government too register a case in Mumbai and go for investigation in Uttar Pradesh?”
Meanwhile, Congress leader Sachin Sawant accused the BJP, an ally of Kumar in Bihar, of “destroying the Constitution” for dismal political gains.
“[The Narendra Modi-led] government and the BJP [are] destroying the democratic structure in India,” he tweeted. “Sad to see BJP’s alliance partners helping them in this destruction of the Constitution which will permanently damage our federal structure for dismal political gains. Hope our courts share our concern for the country.”
The Kumar-led government has been criticised by Opposition leaders and allies alike for not helping the actor’s family in the case.
The Bihar Police had launched an investigation into Rajput’s death after his father filed a first information report against actor Rhea Chakraborty and her relatives on July 25. Singh accused Chakraborty of cheating his son and driving him to suicide.
Chakraborty’s lawyer, meanwhile, said that the transfer of the case to CBI had no legal sanctity. “There can’t be transfer of a case which had no legal basis for Bihar to get involved,” Satish Maneshinde was quoted as saying by ANI. “At most, it would be a ‘Zero FIR’ transferable to Mumbai Police.”
Rajput was found dead in his apartment in Mumbai on June 14, in what the police said was a case of suicide.
The discord between the Patna and Mumbai police over Rajput’s case has also intensified over the last few days. On Monday, Bihar Director General of Police Gupteshwar Pandey said that Indian Police Service officer Vinay Tiwari, who was sent to Mumbai to investigate Rajput’s death, had been “forcibly quarantined” by Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation officials.
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