Sushant Singh Rajput’s death still a mystery
It has been a year since Bollywood actor Sushant Singh Rajput allegedly committed suicide. Many accused have been hauled through the country’s supposedly slow legal system quite quickly. And India’s premier investigation body, the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI), is still probing the death, according to reports. According to a newsagency report quoting a CBI official, the investigation related to the death of the actor" is still continuing" and ";all the aspects of the case are being looked into meticulously".
In August 2020, the Supreme Court had ordered the CBI to take over the probe from Mumbai Police. So far, the agency has not reached any conclusion.
Even though reports had emerged in September that the CBI had refuted the ‘murder’ theory, the agency denied it and said that it was still probing the matter and all aspects were being looked into.
In October 2020, a medical board of the All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) had said Sushant Singh’s death was “a case of hanging and death by suicide", ruling out murder.
Based on its initial investigation into the case, Mumbai Police had concluded that Sushant Singh’s death was a case of suicide. However, the actor’s father KK Singh had filed an FIR in Bihar against Sushant Singh’s girlfriend Rhea Chakraborty and her family members for abetting his son’s suicide.
With Bihar government calling for a CBI probe in the matter, the case eventually was transferred to the central agency even though Mumbai police was opposed to any such move. Probing the abetment angle, the central agency has reportedly named Rhea, her father Indrajit Chakraborty, mother Sandhya Chakraborty, brother Showik Chakraborty, Sushant’s house manager Samuel Miranda, Shruti Modi and unknown others in its FIR. Among the Indian Penal Code sections mentioned were abetment of suicide, criminal conspiracy, wrongful restraint/confinement, theft, criminal breach of trust, cheating. With Sushant Singh’s father having claimed there was a financial motive in the alleged crime, the Enforcement Directorate (ED), too, opened inquiries and had soon pointed to a narcotics angle. On the other hand, in July last year, ED filed a case of money laundering over transactions worth Rs.15 crore in the case.
Many big names of Bollywood were dragged into the drug case with several arrests having been effected, including of Rhe and her brother Showick.
The drug angle in the cases saw the Narcotics Control Bureau (NCB) summoning
Bollywood actors Deepika Padukone, Sara Ali Khan, Shraddha Kapoor and Rakul
Preeet Singh for questioning.
As part of the inquiry into the drugs angle, NCB had raided the Bandra home of Arjun Rampal and summoned him for investigations. Filmmaker Firoz Nadiadwala, too, has recorded his statement with the agency. The NCB inquiry into the drug use also led to the arrest of comedienne Bharti Singh and her husband Harsh Limbachiya, who were later released on bail.
Maybe it will take another year before the whole ‘angle’ to the case is resolved.
