Mumbai police sided with Rhea Chakraborty, Bihar police tells SC

The Bihar police on Friday informed the Supreme Court that it has recommended for the CBI probe into June 14 death of actor Sushant Singh Rajput, given "the sensitivity and inter-state ramifications and presence of the accused in Mumbai and rest of the country".

In an affidavit, the Bihar police claimed jurisdiction to register the FIR and investigate the matter as per the law laid down by the Constitution bench of the Supreme Court in Lalita Kumari case (2014). It also submitted that the transfer petition was not maintainable for transfer of the investigation.

The response was filed in a plea by actress Rhea Chakraborty, live-in partner of the actor, for transfer of Patna FIR to Mumbai. The FIR in Patna was lodged on July 25 by the actor's father who accused Rhea and others of abetment to suicide, illegal confinement, and misappropriation of funds, among others.

READ: Rhea Chakraborty appears before ED in Sushant Singh Rajput's death case

The affidavit by the Patna SSP also claimed that the conduct of Mumbai police "casts a serious aspersion on their role" as it "is apparently siding with the petitioner (Rhea) for the reasons best known to them".

"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. No cognizable case has been registered in Mumbai in connection with death of the actor," it said.

In a related development, the Union government sought to be impleaded as a necessary party in the transfer petition by Rhea, which is slated to come up for consideration next week.

On Friday, a bench presided over by Chief Justice S A Bobde refused to entertain a PIL filed by a law student, Dwivendra Dubey seeking CBI probe into the actor's death as the issue became infructuous with the Centre accepting Bihar government’s recommendation for CBI probe.

The court said the petitioner was a total stranger in the case and a complaint was already filed by the actor's father, which was acted upon by the Bihar government. Solicitor General Tushar Mehta said the CBI has already taken over the probe.