'Rhea Chakraborty went through untold miseries': Lawyer after CBI closes case
Sushant Singh Rajput, at the age of 34, was found hanging from the ceiling of his apartment in Mumbai's Bandra area on June 14, 2020.
Actor Rhea Chakraborty's lawyer Satish Maneshinde on Saturday welcomed the filing of the closure report by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) in the alleged suicide case of actor Sushant Singh Rajput, for which she had been put through testing waters many times.
Sushant Singh Rajput was found hanging from the ceiling of his apartment in Mumbai's Bandra area on June 14, 2020. He was 34 at that time. In connection with his death, the Narcotics Control Bureau (NCB) had arrested Rhea Chakraborty and her brother Shouvik, questioning them for hours multiple times in this regard.
"We are grateful to the CBI for having thoroughly investigated every aspect of the case from all angles and closed the case," Maneshinde was cited as saying by news agency PTI.
The federal probe agency submitted two separate closure reports related to Rajput's death, one in the case of abetment to suicide that was filed by his father KK Singh, and another by Chakraborty against his sisters, officials said.
The closure report on the probe based off the complaint filed by the actor's father was submitted before a special court in Bihar's Patna, while the one in Chakraborty's case was filed before a special court in Mumbai.
Officials said that the courts will now decide whether to accept the report or order further investigation into the cases by the agency.
Rajput's postmortem examination, which was conducted at Mumbai's Cooper Hospital, had concluded that the actor died due to asphyxia.
With the filing of the closure report, Maneshinde also said that the amount of "false narrative in social media and electronic media (over Rajput's death and Chakraborty's alleged involvement) was totally uncalled for".
"Due to the (Covid-19) pandemic, every one was glued to the television and social media in the absence of anything happening in the country. Innocent people were hounded and paraded before the media and investigative authorities. Rhea Chakraborty had to undergo untold miseries and was behind bars for 27 days before being released on bail," he said in the statement.
Two cases before CBI
Sushant Singh Rajput's father KK Singh had filed a case with the Patna Police, accusing the actor's rumoured girlfriend Rhea Chakraborty of abetment to suicide and siphoning off ₹15 crore from his son's accounts.
Meanwhile, Chakraborty filed a complaint in Bandra accusing Rajput's sisters of giving him medicines on the basis of a fake prescription issued by a doctor from Delhi's Ram Manohar Lohia hospital.
The case filed before the Bandra police was later taken over by the CBI, wherein Chakraborty alleged that Rajput passed away five days after the medications were wrongfully prescribed to him.
While probing the case, the federal probe agency recorded statements of Chakraborty, her close aides, Rajput's family and close circle, and collected the deceased actor's medical reports.
What does the CBI report say?
The CBI's closure report into the death of actor Sushant Singh report, filed after nearly five years of his passing, has ruled out any foul play in his death, people familiar with the matter said.
Officials said that based on expert opinion, analysis of the crime scene, witness statements and forensic reports, the federal probe agency came to the conclusion that there was no material to support the allegations that anyone could have driven the actor to suicide.
The closure report gave a clean chit to Chakraborty and her family members, who were accused of driving Rajput to suicide and embezzling his money, confirming that the actor took his own life.
The agency finally decided to put an end to five years of conspiracy theories surrounding the Bollywood actor's death.
"After an extensive investigation that involved gathering forensic evidence from various locations, technical evidence from the US, multiple medical opinions and questioning of all the persons connected, we have not found any foul play in the death of actor Sushant Singh Rajput. Hence, a closure report was filed in two related cases before a special court in Mumbai," a senior official said.
Additionally, in its reported medico-legal opinion to the agency, forensic specialists at the All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) also dismissed claims of "poisoning and strangling" that was made in the case of Rajput's death.
(with PTI inputs)
