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Top court allows CBI probe in Sushant Singh Rajput’s death
The Supreme Court upheld the validity of the Bihar Police FIR registered on the basis of a complaint by Rajput’s father and directed Mumbai Police to pass on all evidence collected during its investigation to CBI.
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The Supreme Court ruled on Wednesday that the ongoing probe by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) into the case filed against actor Rhea Chakraborty and her family for allegedly abetting the suicide of Bollywood star Sushant Singh Rajput is lawful, allowing the federal agency to continue its investigation and rejecting a plea by Chakraborty to transfer the case to the Maharashtra Police.
A single-judge bench of justice Hrishikesh Roy invoked powers under Article 142 of the Constitution to hold that a fair, competent and impartial investigation is required considering the fact that there are competing claims and acrimonious allegations of political interference by the Maharashtra and Bihar governments.
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“In such situation, there is reasonable apprehension of truth being a casualty and justice becoming a victim. To ensure public confidence in the investigation and to do complete justice in the matter, this court considers it appropriate to invoke the powers conferred by Article 142 of the Constitution. The ongoing investigation by the CBI is held to be lawful,” the court said.
Article 142 empowers the Supreme Court to pass orders for doing complete justice in cases before it.
Rajput was found dead at his Mumbai apartment on June 14 in what police said appeared to be an open-and-shut case of suicide. The post-mortem report ruled out any foul play. After a two-week quiet, a political controversy erupted over the death, as a Bihar Police team constituted to probe the case on a complaint by the actor’s family alleged it got no cooperation from its Mumbai counterpart.
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The jurisdictional turf war spilled into the legal arena as the Supreme Court was approached to decide if CBI could investigate the matter. The issue became deeply acrimonious and divisive at multiple levels — between the Rajput and Chakraborty families, between the actors’ respective sets of fans, between the governments of the two states in question, and between the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and its former ally Shiv Sena — and left the entertainment industry split vertically.
The case opened up a raging debate in and about the industry, devolving into a war of words and allegations between two camps largely made up of “insiders” (with generational links to Bollywood) and “outsiders” (first-generation actors and filmmakers).
Chakraborty and her supporters alleged that the Bihar government was trying to hijack the emotive issue for political capital ahead of the upcoming state assembly elections.
Chakraborty’s lawyer Satish Maneshinde said in a statement to the media after Wednesday’s ruling that the court referred to the fact that his client called for a CBI probe. Chakraborty, in her written arguments submitted before the Supreme Court, had said she was not opposed to a CBI probe provided it was ordered by the Supreme Court and not the Bihar government.
“The Supreme Court, after examining the facts and circumstances of the case and the report of the Mumbai Police, has observed that it will be the desired justice as Rhea herself called for a CBI investigation. It also observed that due to the allegations made by the two states [Bihar and Maharashtra] of political interference against each other, it would be in the interest of justice to hand over the case to the CBI,” Maneshinde said.
He said Chakraborty will cooperate with the CBI investigation as she has with the Mumbai Police and the Enforcement Directorate. “Rhea maintains that the truth will remain the same whichever agency investigates the case,” Maneshinde said.
Bihar chief minister Nitish Kumar termed Wednesday’s verdict as a “victory of justice”. State police chief Gupteshwar Pandey expressed satisfaction on the order and triggered a controversy when he made a derogatory reference to Chakraborty while talking to the media.
Union law minister Ravi Shankar Prasad weighed in on the matter as he tweeted, “Justice triumphs! The soul of late actor Sushant Singh Rajput will surely now rest in peace with the assurance of a fair investigation by CBI on the FIR filed in Patna by Bihar Police whose request for transfer of case to CBI has been validated by the Supreme Court.”
Rajput’s father, who is living with his daughter in Faridabad, was not available for comments but his family issued a statement thanking everybody for their support. “We are particularly thankful to chief minister Nitish Kumar for setting the wheel of justice in motion,” the statement said. “Today’s development has reaffirmed our faith in India as a robust democracy,” it added.
The family’s lawyer, Vikash Singh, said it was a “historic” verdict.
State opposition leader Tejashwi Prasad Yadav, Rajput’s cousin and BJP MLA Neeraj Kumar Bablu, Bihar minister Sanjay Jha, Lok Janshakti Party (LJP) leader Chirag Paswan, former CM Jitan Ram Manjhi, Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) MP Manoj Jha, BJP spokesperson Shahnawaj Hussain, senior Congress leader Tariq Anwar, and Parth Pawar, grandson of NCP leader Sharad Pawar, were among political leaders who welcomed the verdict.
Shiv Sena leader Sanjay Raut said the order was “not a loss”. “Until we read a copy of the order, we cannot react to it. Once the order is received, either the advocate general or the state DGP [director general of police] will talk about it. Raising questions on the ability of the Mumbai Police was a conspiracy. According to me, the Mumbai Police carried out the probe effectively. Now that the SC has given its judgment in the matter, someone who is not in the government should not speak on it,” said Raut.
Actor-producer Kangana Ranaut, who has been leading a campaign against industry “insiders” for allegedly driving Rajput to suicide, congratulated all “SSR warriors” (after the late actor’s initials) after the Supreme Court verdict.
The highest court upheld the validity of the Bihar Police FIR registered on the basis of a complaint by Rajput’s father and directed Mumbai Police to pass on all evidence collected during its investigation to CBI.
