The Bombay High Court on Friday disposed a bunch of Public Interest Litigations filed in connection with the death of actor Sushant Singh Rajput, PTI reported. The High Court cited the Supreme Court’s order directing the Central Bureau of Investigation to probe the matter and said it cannot do anything more.
A bench of Chief Justice Dipankar Datta and Justice Revati Mohite-Dere said the petitioners were free to approach the Supreme Court if they feel the Maharashtra government, the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation or the Mumbai Police were not cooperating with the probing agency.
Advocate Subhash Jha, appearing for one of the petitioners, said the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation could forcibly quarantine CBI officials as it had done earlier when a Bihar police official arrived in the city for investigating the case. Bihar Director General of Police Gupteshwar Pandey had claimed that Indian Police Service officer Vinay Tiwari was “forcibly quarantined” by the city’s civic body officials. The Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation had denied the allegations and said Tiwari was quarantined as per the present guidelines for domestic arrivals at the Mumbai airport.
The civic body has, however, exempted the visiting CBI officials, who are already in the city, from home quarantine rules imposed to curb the spread of the coronavirus.
During the hearing, the court said Jha’s argument was just an apprehension. “Let it happen first,” the bench said. “Let the BMC [Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation] face the music before the SC [Supreme Court] if there is any impediment for the CBI when it comes here.”
The bench also told Jha that he can approach the Supreme Court if the civic body quarantined the CBI personnel.
On Wednesday, the Supreme Court had ordered a CBI probe in Rajput’s death and upheld the validity of the first information report registered against actor Rhea Chakraborty in Patna. Rajput’s father KK Singh had filed the FIR against Chakraborty in July, accusing her of driving his son to suicide. Chakraborty had argued that the FIR against her in Patna was illegal.
Rajput was found dead in his apartment in Mumbai on June 14, in what the Mumbai Police said was a case of suicide.
The CBI had taken over the inquiry into Rajput’s death earlier this month as the Centre accepted the Bihar government’s recommendation to involve the investigation agency in the case. In its Wednesday order, the Supreme Court had also directed the Mumbai Police to hand over all the evidence to the probing agency.
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