Last week Rhea Chakraborty released a tearful video in which she said “truth will prevail”
New Delhi:
The Supreme Court will hear on Wednesday actor Rhea Chakraborty’s plea seeking the transfer of an FIR – from Patna to Mumbai – accusing her of abetting in actor Sushant Singh Rajput’s alleged suicide in June. The FIR, filed by Bihar police on a complaint by the actor’s father, alleges that Ms Chakraborty illegally transferred Rs 15 crore from Mr Rajput’s Mumbai bank account and mentally harassed him.
However, Ms Chakraborty, who was reportedly Mr Rajput’s girlfriend at the time of his death, has challenged Bihar police’s jurisdiction in the matter, given that the alleged crime took place in Maharashtra.
In her interim plea on this matter Ms Chakraborty also said that it was becoming “increasingly evident that the FIR was successfully filed in Patna only due to intervention of the Chief Minister of Bihar and other local politicians”.
The plea said the actress has a “strong prima facie case in her favour as it is submitted the cause of action has not even remotely occurred within Patna”.
The governments of both Bihar and Maharashtra have been made parties in the plea, as is Mr Rajput’s father, Krishna Kishore Singh. The state governments have already filed a caveat seeking to be heard by the top court before any order is passed.
The hearing, before a bench led by Justice Hrishikesh Roy, will be keenly followed by Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar, who, this morning, recommended that the case, which has snowballed into a political case caught between the two states, be transferred to the CBI.
Mr Kumar made the recommendation at the request of Mr Rajput’s father, who claimed on Monday that he had warned Mumbai police of a threat to his son but saw no action taken.
Sushant Singh Rajput’s father, Krishna Kishore Singh, has accused Rhea Chakraborty (File)
The cops hit back shortly after, saying that no formal, written complaint had been filed and that the family did not mention their suspicions to them in the days immediately following Mr Rajput’s death.
Ms Chakraborty had earlier put out an appeal to Union Home Minister Amit Shah on social media, asking for the CBI to probe the case.
On Tuesday she opposed the recommendation by the Bihar Chief Minister, saying Nitish Kumar’s decision had “no legal sanctity”.
Maharashtra Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray and Home Minister Anil Deshmukh have both ruled out a CBI investigation.
Actor Sushant Singh Rajput was found dead at his Mumbai residence on June 14 (File)
Legal experts have pointed out that even with the Bihar Chief Minister’s recommendation, the central agency has no jurisdiction unless it is invited either by the state in which the alleged crime happened (Maharashtra) or is assigned the case by the High Court or Supreme Court.
A Bihar police team has been camped in Mumbai since Wednesday last week.
Their presence has sparked a turf war with Mumbai police, who say there is no evidence, as yet, of any financial irregularities on Ms Chakraborty’s part. Mumbai police, which has said it will investigate all avenues, has also said that Mr Rajput suffered from bipolar disorder.
Bihar Police, for their part, are insistent that they will continue to investigate and follow the money trail, as well as the alleged suicide of the actor’s former manager, Disha Salian, who died six days before him.
Meanwhile, last week the Enforcement Directorate waded into the mix and registered a money laundering case over the FIR filed by Bihar police.
Ms Chakraborty, who has been largely silent on this matter, broke that silence on Friday in a tearful video released by her lawyers. “The truth shall prevail,” she said in the video.
With input from PTI
