Sushant Singh Rajput case: A probe gone wayward?

An investigation into the death of film actor Sushant Singh Rajput, which was considered to be a suicide, has taken turns which are rarely seen even in movies. Weeks after the country’s premier investigation agency took over the case from Mumbai police, its purpose seems to have been forgotten or sidelined. The probe is now on the drug-taking habit and drug deals of Bollywood stars, especially women actors.

Deepika Padukone has been grilled for hours by the Narcotics Control Bureau (NCB), whose remit is to check drug trafficking across national borders and not to track movement of grams of it between individuals. Along with Padukone, others like Sara Ali Khan and Shraddha Kapoor are also under the scanner. The investigation has now become a witch hunt, and it may not be an accident that some of those under the scanner are on the wrong side of the politics of the ruling party at the Centre. Nor that Rakesh Asthana, an officer with a history, helms the NCB.

In the first phase of the investigation, the charges of murder or abetment to suicide seem to have been dropped by the wayside after many trails were created and then abandoned. Subsequently, agencies like the NCB and the Enforcement Directorate (ED) came into the picture. Sushant Singh’s friend Rhea Chakraborty and her brother were probed. After charges of illegal diversion of funds and financial wrongdoing were not supported on scrutiny, drug-related charges have been invoked.

The NCB has arrested 19 persons, including Rhea Chakraborty, and it says it has seized some quantity of narcotics from one person. The NCB says it will go after the “drug citadel in Mumbai, especially Bollywood.’’ There are two streams of drug cases now, which apparently are not related to each other. It is also not clear how they are related to the death of Sushant Singh, from where the original investigation started.

What drove the case first was, and perhaps drives it even now is, politics. Elections in Bihar were a consideration for the central government in pushing for a CBI probe because Sushant Singh was from that state. Its strained relations with the Maharashtra government also had a role in that. Other themes like mental health issues of actors, nepotism and rivalry in Bollywood also went into the cocktail of the case.

Selective leaks of information from “reliable” sources made it murkier. WhatsApp messages and even “body language” were presented as evidence. A most unhealthy media trial, which passed judgements and demonised people, was staged on TV channels every day. It is an investigation gone wayward, and when important investigative agencies conduct themselves in such an unseemly manner, the rule of law goes into stupor.