Manas Dasgupta
NEW DELHI, Mar 23: The former Bihar director general of police Gupteshwar Pandey has strongly criticised the Mumbai police for the shoddy handling of the Bollywood actor Sushant Singh Rajput’s “suspicious” death and refusing to co-operate with the Bihar police when it wanted to probe into the case on a complaint filed by his father KK Singh.
He, however, refrained from commenting on the closure report filed by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) which has reportedly held Rajput’s death a case of suicide and has also rejected the suggestion that actor Rhea Chakraborty had any role to play in his death. Mr Pandey said the CBI was a “professional agency” and could not do anything if it could not lay its hands on evidence.
Criticising the Mumbai police, Mr Pandey said its handling of the case led to ‘suspicions’ among the public. Speaking on the initial investigation into the actor’s death, Pandey alleged that the Mumbai Police “did not cooperate” with the Bihar Police team sent to investigate the case. He claimed that an IPS officer he sent for better coordination was quarantined, and the Bihar Police team was turned away after just five days.
The then Bihar DGP also clarified that he “never claimed” that the actor was murdered, but only that his death was “suspicious” and wanted a thorough investigation. “When news of Sushant Singh Rajput’s death came, the matter died down within 20 days. After 20 days, his father lodged a case in Patna for the investigation of which a team was sent. But Maharashtra Police did not cooperate. I sent an IPS officer for better coordination. But quarantined him…I don’t need to be biased against anyone but during that time, the kind of conduct that was displayed by Mumbai Police caused suspicions in the minds of people in the country.”
Mr Pandey said he did not get any opportunity to investigate the case. “The CBI took over the case and after years…I don’t want to say anything. CBI investigated this case, I did not get the chance to investigate. But he expressed concern that the CBI might not have uncovered all the evidence or that some evidence might have been ‘destroyed’.
“There could still be a suspicion that CBI did not get all evidence or maybe some evidence was even destroyed. But I never said Sushant Singh Rajput was murdered…I just said that it was a suspicious death and it could be investigated properly. Had Mumbai Police handled the case well and held a press conference and answered all questions, Mumbai Police would not have been defamed…I don’t want to say anything on CBI’s closure report because it is a professional agency. What else can it do if it can’t find evidence?” he said.
Sushant, 34, was found dead at his Bandra residence on June 14, 2020, which created a huge controversy, with the investigation later being handed over to the CBI. His post-mortem report stated the cause of death was asphyxia. The post-mortem was conducted at Mumbai’s Cooper Hospital. The actor’s death sparked a nationwide outcry, with many demanding ‘justice’ for the late actor. The case was initially investigated by the Mumbai Police before being handed over to the CBI.
Meanwhile, actor Rhea Chakraborty’s lawyer Satish Maneshinde on Saturday welcomed the CBI’s closure report. “We are grateful to the CBI for having thoroughly investigated every aspect of the case from all angles and closed the case,” he said in a statement.
The CBI has submitted its findings before a special court in Mumbai which will now decide whether to accept the report or order further probe by the agency, officials said. The central agency had taken over the probe from the Bihar police which had registered an abetment of suicide case on a complaint filed in Patna by the actor’s father K K Singh.
In its conclusive medico-legal opinion to the CBI, forensic specialists at AIIMS had dismissed the claims of “poisoning and strangling” made in the case. The CBI had recorded the statements of Rhea Chakraborty and others in his close circle and collected the actor’s medical records.
In his statement, Maneshinde said the amount of “false narrative in the social media and electronic media was totally uncalled for.” “Due to the pandemic, everyone was glued to the television and social media in the absence of anything happening in the country. Innocent people were hounded and paraded before the media and investigative authorities,” the statement said.
He pointed out that “Rhea Chakraborty had to undergo untold miseries and was behind bars for 27 days” before being released on bail. The actor and her brother Shouvik Chakraborty, along with several other accused, were arrested by the Narcotics Control Bureau (NCB) in a drugs-related probe linked to Rajput’s death. In his complaint to the Bihar police, Rajput’s father had alleged that Ms Chakraborty, along with her family members, misappropriated his son’s money and had also instigated him to commit suicide, a charge denied by her in television interviews.
