Sushant Singh Rajput death: Obligated to register case against late actor’s sisters, Mumbai police tell HC

Case was registered on the basis of actress Rhea Chakraborty’s complaint blaming the deceased actor’s sisters and a Delhi-based cardiologist for Rajput’s death

The Mumbai police have told the Bombay high court that they were “statutorily obligated” to register a case on the basis of actress Rhea Chakraborty’s complaint on September 7 blaming actor Sushant Singh Rajput’s sisters Priyanka and Meetu Singh and Delhi-based cardiologist Dr Tarun Kumar for his death. The complaint cited commission of a cognisable offence, they added.

Bombay high court.

Nikhil Kapse, a senior inspector, has filed an affidavit in the court saying an Out Patient Department (OPD) prescription of Kumar and certain WhatsApp chats exchanged between Rajput and Priyanka Singh, were cited in the complaint. The affidavit said the complainant also produced an OPD registration bearing the actor’s name, room and queue number. It added Chakraborty alleged that Priyanka Singh had sent Rajput prescriptions of medicines containing psychotropic substances in violation of the Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances Act, 1985, without any actual examination of the patient. The consumption of the psychotropic substances “may have caused and contributed to the suicidal death of the actor”, she alleged.

“This version of the informant [Chakraborty] disclosed commission of cognisable offences, warranting investigation,” Kapse said in the affidavit justifying registration of a First Investigation Report (FIR).

The affidavit was filed in reply to Priyanka and Meetu Singh’s plea seeking quashing of the FIR.

In the plea filed through advocate Madhav Thorat, they claimed the medicines were not banned and Medical Council of India’s April 11 guidelines about telemedicine allowed “the medicines to be prescribed to a patient even at the first consultation”.

“A bare perusal of the complaint along with the FIR shows that the statements made therein do not make out any cognisable offence,” the plea said. It called Chakraborty’s complaint nothing but a feeble attempt on her part to scuttle the investigations against her and blame Rajput’s family for his suicide as she was on the verge of being arrested.

The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI), which is probing Rajput’s death, has backed the actor’s family and called Chakraborty’s allegations “mostly presumptive and speculative in nature”. It has said the FIR was “bad in law”.

The CBI has said the Mumbai police ought not to have registered a second FIR over Rajput’s death. “It is settled law that two FIRs cannot be registered on the same cause of action,” the CBI said in an affidavit. “It is a fact that the CBI is already investigating the causes relating to the death of Sushant Singh Rajput...”

Kapse has maintained their FIR was neither against the same accused persons nor was it based on the same version.