Patna/Mumbai: The Bihar government recommended Tuesday a CBI inquiry into actor Sushant Singh Rajput’s death case, Chief Minister Nitish Kumar said. However, this development was contested by Rhea Chakraborty’s lawyer. Rhea Chakraborty’s lawyer insisted the state had no jurisdiction to make such a recommendation.
“The state government has sent its recommendation for a CBI inquiry into the case filed by Mr KK Singh, the father of late Sushant Singh Rajput,” Nitish Kumar tweeted.
Patna and Mumbai police are locked in a bitter turf war over who had the mandate of law to investigate the sensational death of Rajput. The Bihar Chief Minister had earlier said his government had decided to hand over the case to the central probe agency after the actor’s father gave his consent.
Rajput’s father, had July 25 lodged a police complaint against Rhea, a budding actor and his son’s rumoured girlfriend, of abetting his suicide, keeping him in wrongful confinement and defrauding him of crores of rupees.
“The actor’s father spoke to the DGP and gave his consent for a CBI probe. Since he had lodged an FIR with Bihar police, we could not have recommended a CBI inquiry. Now that he has consented, I have asked the DGP to complete all formalities today (Tuesday) and the government will send its recommendation today itself,” Kumar told journalists.
Rhea’s lawyer Satishmane Shinde, however, called into question the Bihar government’s decision.
“There cannot be transfer of a case which had no legal basis to begin with for the Bihar police to get involved. At the most, it would be a ‘Zero FIR’ which would then be transferred to Mumbai Police,” Maneshinde said in a statement in Mumbai. “The transfer of a case, in which they (Bihar police) had no jurisdiction, to CBI has ‘no legal sanctity’,” he added.
Rajput, 34, was found hanging at his apartment in suburban Bandra June 14.
Kumar’s announcement also did not go down well with the ruling coalition in Maharashtra which claimed it encroached upon the rights of the state government.
Maharashtra minister and NCP national spokesperson Nawab Malik said the Nitish Kumar government was probably trying to divert attention from its ‘failure’ in combating COVID-19 by recommending a CBI probe. “Do they (Bihar government) have jurisdiction over a crime that has taken place in Maharashtram,” Malik asked.
Malik asserted that the way Bihar government is behaving is creating a crisis. “It is akin to encroaching upon the rights of another state, which is not healthy in a democratic set up,” Malik added.
The developments came a day before the Supreme Court is slated to hear a petition by Rhea seeking transfer of the case to Mumbai, where an investigation in the matter is already on.
