By Raju Vernekar
Mumbai, Aug 21:
A day after being directed by the Supreme Court to investigate Bollywood actor Sushant Singh Rajput’s death case, a Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) team arrived in Mumbai on Thursday evening to probe the case.
The team led by Superintendent Nupur Prasad will investigate the case of the death of Sushant (34), who was found dead at his residence at Bandra in North West Mumbai, on June 14. The CBI team comprises Additional Superintendent Anil Yadav, three investigating officers and 12 experts from the CFSL, Delhi. Forensic expert Dr Sudhir Gupta will also be part of the team.
DIG. Mohd. Suvez Haque of ACB, Mumbai has been appointed a nodal officer to coordinate between Mumbai Police and CBI. The CBI will investigate the case by forming 6 teams of 3 to 4 officers to study different aspects of the incident. It will also recreate the scene at Sushant’s residence. The team is also expected to question two DCPs from Mumbai police. The team will be in Mumbai for 10 days. It has been exempted from requirement of compulsory home quarantine by the BMC, based on team’s advance application sent via e mail.
It may be recalled that the BMC had quarantined Bihar IPS officer Vinay Tiwari earlier this month, after his arrival to oversee probe in the actor’s death case, since no formal request to waive the quarantine period was made by the Patna Police and also the period of his stay in Mumbai was not specified.
While Mumbai Police registered ADR (accidental death) on June 14, after Sushant was found dead and was carrying out an inquiry under Section 174 of the Criminal Procedure Code, based on Sushant’s father K K Singh’s request, Patna police registered an FIR invoking IPC Sections 306 (abetment of suicide), 341 (wrongful restraint), 342 (wrongful confinement), 380 (theft in dwelling house), 406 (criminal breach of trust) 506 (criminal intimidation),120B (criminal conspiracy) and 420 (cheating).
KK Singh (74) had lodged an FIR on July 25 against Sushant’s ex girl friend Rhea Chakraborty and 5 others in Patna, accusing her of financially cheating him of crores and harassing him mentally driving him to commit suicide. Then on August 04, the Bihar Government approved the proposal to request the Union Government to transfer the case from Mumbai to CBI.
In the intervening period Rhea filed the petition in the SC challenging that the Patna Police had no jurisdiction to investigate the matter since the cause of action arose in Mumbai and she was already questioned by the Bandra police a couple of times.
The CBI has already registered an FIR against Sushant’s ex girl friend Rhea Chakraborty ( accused of abetting his suicide) and others in connection with the actor’s death after the Centre accepted Bihar Government’s recommendation to transfer the probe in the matter from Patna. Others named in the FIR are : Rhea’s brother Showik Chakraborty, father Indrajit Chakraborty, mother Sandhya Chakraborty, Rhea’s associate and Sushant’s house manager Samuel Miranda and Shruti Modi.
