The Central Bureau of Investigation on Wednesday told the Bombay High Court that the first information report filed against Sushant Singh Rajput’s sisters for allegedly forging and procuring a fake medical prescription for their brother was “vitiated and bad in law,” PTI reported.
The CBI made the arguments in response to a plea filed by Rajput’s sisters – Priyanka Singh and Mitu Singh – seeking to quash the case lodged against them by the Mumbai Police. The FIR was filed based on actor Rhea Chakraborty’s complaint.
Chakraborty has alleged that Rajput’s sisters used a fabricated medical prescription to help him procure medicines banned under the Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances Act, only a few days before his death. She also named a doctor of the Ram Manohar Lohia Hospital in Delhi, Tarun Kumar, who allegedly signed the prescription.
On Tuesday, Chakraborty requested the Bombay High Court to dismiss their petition, arguing that the allegations against them were serious.
During the hearing on Wednesday, the CBI backed Priyanka Singh and Mitu Singh’s plea, arguing that if the Mumbai Police or Chakraborty had any information on Rajput’s death, they should have directly shared it with the agency. “The FIR registered at the Bandra police station was not required,” the central agency told the High Court, according to NDTV.
The CBI said the allegations made by Chakraborty against the sisters are “mostly presumptive and speculative” and cannot be the basis of a complaint. The agency also pointed out that it was already probing the complaint filed by Rajput’s father KK Singh against Chakraborty and her family members for allegedly abetting Rajput’s suicide.
“It is settled law that two FIRs cannot be registered on the same cause of action....the CBI is already investigating the causes relating to the death of Sushant Singh Rajput and all aspects surrounding the same,” the agency said. “In view of this, it was expected from the Mumbai police to forward the complaint received from Rhea Chakraborty to the CBI instead of registering [an] FIR itself.”
The CBI added that the police should have conducted a preliminary enquiry before registering the FIR.
In her affidavit, Chakraborty had claimed that Rajput had a “tumultuous relationship” with his family and was also suffering from mental health problems, for which he was undergoing medical treatment. “In January 2020, Rajput went to Chandigarh to meet his family. After he returned, he said he was discontinuing his medications and treatment,” the affidavit said. “In March 2020, when the country was hit by [the] Covid-19 pandemic and lockdown was announced, Rajput appeared stable initially, but with each passing day his mental health started deteriorating.”
Rajput was found dead in his Mumbai apartment on June 14, in what the police initially said appeared to be a case of suicide. Chakraborty, who was eventually arrested for consuming drugs, was granted bail on October 7. “The investigation did not reveal any recovery either from Rhea or from the house of Sushant Singh Rajput,” the Bombay High Court order said.
Investigation into Rajput’s death also put Bollywood in muddied waters after the Narcotics Control Bureau claimed to have unearthed a close nexus between illegal drug consumption and the film industry. On October 12, top Bollywood filmmakers and producers filed a lawsuit in the Delhi High Court against “irresponsible reporting by certain media houses” around Rajput’s death. The lawsuit was filed against Republic TV and Arnab Goswami and Pradeep Bhandari of the channel, and Times Now and its prominent anchors Rahul Shivshankar and Navika Kumar.
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