[Sushant Singh Death Case] Mumbai Police Siding With Rhea, Not Cooperating With Investigation: Bihar Govt. Tells SC [Read Affidavit]

In its affidavit filed before the Supreme Court in response to the Transfer Petition filed by Actress Rhea Chakroborthy , Bihar Government has alleged that Mumbai Police is not cooperating with its investigation in Sushant Singh Rajput Death Case and is siding with Rhea.

The Actress had filed a petition before the Supreme Court seeking transfer of an FIR filed against her from Patna to Mumbai and the stay on the investigation by the Bihar police.

Section 406 CrPC Cannot Be Invoked To Transfer Investigation

Upendra Sharma, Senior Superintendent of Police, Patna, who filed the affidavit on behalf of the State of Bihar, contended that the transfer petition filed by Rhea under section 406 Cr.P.C is not maintainable as the same cannot be invoked to transfer investigation from one state to another state. He also submitted that, even otherwise, Rhea has not mentioned anything to substantiate bias except for the general and bald allegation that the complaint has been lost due to influence of the informant of the case. Therefore, in the absence of any substantiated bias, merely on the apprehension of bias cannot ipso facto be a ground for transfer of criminal proceedings, he contended.

Non Cooperation Of Mumbai Police, Forcible Quarantine By BMC

Sharma said that the  Mumbai Police refused to co-operate and provide necessary support to the members of SIT who reached there. He further stated that Vinay Tiwary,the City Superintendent of Police, Patna (Central) was forcibly quarantined (on 02.08.2020 late night) by the BMC despite the fact that he was on official duty in connection with investigation of offence subject matter of the present transfer petition. "Inspite of the observation made by this Hon'ble Court during course of hearing on 05.08.2020 to the effect that the confinement of the police officer does not send out a good message, the BMC has refused to accept the request for release of the IPS Officer from quarantine center. The aforesaid act on part of the BMC is contemptuous.", he said.

"The forcible quarantine of the IPS officer Mr. Vinay Tiwary is nothing but a result of afterthought on part of Mumbai Police aimed at obstructing the investigation by the Patna Police which is amply clear from the fact that when the four members of the SIT went to Mumbai, they were not quarantined. However, when IPS officer Mr. Vinay Tiwary reached Mumbai, he was forcibly quarantined by the BMC. The aforesaid fact casts a serious aspersion on the role of Mumbai Police who is apparently siding with the petitioner for the reasons best known to them.", Sharma added. The affidavit further alleged that the Mumbai Police has not supplied any documents such as Inquest Report, Post Mortem report, FSL report, CCTV footage etc. to the Patna Police despite several requests made.

Mumbai Police Making Lame Excuses

The Affidavit further stated that the subject matter of investigation before the Mumbai Police is only a case of unnatural death u/s 174 Cr.P.C which has a very limited scope. "The Mumbai Police has been making lame excuses that only Mumbai Police has jurisdiction to investigate the offence which it has already been investigating despite the fact that no cognizable case has been registered in Mumbai in connection with death of the deceased actor Sushant Singh Rajput.", it said.

Patna Police Has Jurisdiction

Further, referring to Section 179 Cr.P.C, the State contended that the offence can be tried either at the place where the offence has been committed or the consequence ensues.  "In the present case the victim is the informant Mr. Krishna  Kishore Singh who has lost his young, vibrant son due to act committed by the accused persons including the petitioner herein. Hence, the Patna Police has jurisdiction to register the FIR and the court at Patna has jurisdiction to try the offence as mentioned in the FIR No. 241/2020 registered with Rajeev Nagar P.S (Patna).", the state said.

The affidavit further state that in spite of the non cooperation, a preliminary investigation was conducted by the SIT and it was because of the matter and the inter-state ramification and presence of most of the accused in Mumbai, investigation of the case by Central Bureau of Investigation was recommended. 

CBI Has Taken Over Investigation

Yesterday, the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI)  registered a First Information Report (FIR) against Actress Rhea Chakraborty and five family members in the Sushant Singh Rajput's death case. The case is now investigated by a team headed by Anil Kumar Yadav, SP, CBI. The other accused name in the FIR are Indrajit Chakraborty, Sandhya Chakraborty, Showik Chakraborty, Samuel Miranda and Shruti Modi.

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