IT Correspondent,
Mumbai, July 31:
The Enforcement Directorate on Thursday sought details from Bihar police, of the FIR filed by late actor Sushant Singh Rajput’s father against actress Rhea Chakraborty, to check whether there is money laundering aspect in the case.
The ED has sought a copy of the FIR since Sushant’s father Krishna Kumar Singh (74) has accused Rhea of siphoning crores of rupees from his bank account. The ED officials said that they are looking into the case for a possible investigation under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA).
The ED will probe if anyone used Sushant’s money to create illegal assets. In such circumstances, it can attach assets of the accused and can arrest anyone found guilty,under the PMLA. According to reports, two flats in Sai Fortune Housing Complex in Ulwe (Navi Mumbai) are registered in the name of Rhea’ father Indrajit Chakraborty. Two companies in which Sushant was director, are registered with the address of these flats. It is not clear who paid the money to buy these flats.
Sushant’s father has registered the FIR against Rhea and her family members and six others on charges of alleged abetment to suicide of his son under IPC 341 (wrongful restraint), 342 (wrongful confinement), 380 (theft in dwelling house), 406 (criminal breach of trust), 420 (cheating) and 306 (abetment of suicide). Singh has accused Rhea, a budding TV and film actress of having befriended his son in May 2019 with the intention of furthering her own career.
Sushant (34), was found dead in his apartment in Mumbai’s Bandra area on June 14, 2020. The Mumbai police had registered it as an Accidental death case.
In another development, on Thursday, Rhea alleged before the Supreme Court that Sushant’s father was using his influence in falsely implicating her in the FIR lodged at Patna in Bihar accusing her of abetment of suicide of Sushant. She said that she has been into acting since 2012.
She admitted that she was in a live-in relationship with Sushant since a year up till June 8, 2020 when she temporarily shifted to her own residence in Mumbai.. She has been in deep trauma due his death and now she was getting rape and death threats. As such she has filed a complaint at Santa Cruz police station in Mumbai against the death and rape threats.
Her plea said, Sushant was suffering from depression and was also on anti-depressants and he committed suicide on the morning of June 14, by hanging himself. She was summoned by the Bandra police in Mumbai on various occasions and her statement was also recorded under section 175 of CrPC. She has learnt that the probe by Mumbai police is on and some of the forensic reports are awaited.
She said that Section 177 of CrPC mandates that every offence shall be inquired into and shall be tried by the magistrate within whose local jurisdiction it is committed. As such the jurisdiction to probe the offence would lie with the Bandra Police Station. However, in the present case, the investigation has mechanically commenced without jurisdiction by sending report to the Additional Chief Judicial Magistrate 3, Patna Sadar, Patna, instead of sending FIR to the jurisdictional Additional Chief Metropolitan Magistrate, Bandra, Mumbai and Bandra police station.
It becomes abundantly clear that the commencement of investigation in Patna is erroneous, since the incident happened at Bandra. As such it would be just and expedient, if the case is transferred from Patna to Mumbai. No prejudice would be caused to the respondents (father of Sushant and Bihar police), if the direction is issued in this regard by the SC, the plea said.
