Maharashtra police didn’t lodge FIR in Sushant Singh Rajput case due to political pressure, Bihar government tells Supreme Court

New Delhi: Maharashtra Police did not register an FIR on actor Sushant Singh Rajput’s suicide. Also Maharashtra Police did not extend any support to their Bihar counterparts investigating the case. They did on ‘account of political pressure’, the Bihar government told the Supreme Court here Thursday.

The Bihar government and Rhea Chakraborty have filed their written submissions in the top court on the actress’ plea. The plea states that she is seeking transfer of the FIR to Mumbai. An FIR has been registered in Patna by Rajput’s father in which he has named Rhea for allegedly abetting the actor’s suicide.

Rhea said transfer of investigation to the CBI at the behest of Bihar Police was without the state’s jurisdiction.

The Bihar government filed its submission through its lawyer Keshav Mohan. “It is apparent that it is on account of political pressure in the State of Maharashtra that neither the FIR has been registered by the Mumbai Police nor did they extend any cooperation to Bihar Police in discharging their obligation to conduct investigation expeditiously,” the submission stated.

The submission, settled by senior advocate Mainder Singh, said that nothing further is called for in the present ‘Transfer Petition’ of Rhea and it deserved to be rejected or disposed of.

“In the facts and circumstances of the present case, it is humbly submitted that no impediment would deserve to be allowed to come in the way of CBI to undertake and complete the investigation expeditiously,” the Bihar government said.

On the other hand, Rhea submitted that Bihar had no jurisdiction to either to lodge an FIR or to transfer it.

“It is submitted that the investigations in Bihar are totally illegal. Such illegal proceedings cannot be transferred to CBI in the present manner by way of illegal executive orders. The petitioner has no objection if the transfer of investigation to CBI is done in exercise of powers conferred upon this Court under Article 142 of the Constitution of India. Otherwise, the present transfer from Bihar Police to CBI as is done is totally without jurisdiction and contrary to law,” Rhea’s submission stated.

The apex court had August 11 reserved its order on Rhea’s plea. It had asked the parties concerned to file their written submissions by Thursday.

Rhea dealt with the legal provisions and said her transfer plea was maintainable. “Even on a reading of the FIR, no part of the offence has taken place in Bihar. Even the FIR alleges that all acts have happened only in Mumbai. As such Patna (Bihar) has only been mentioned owing to the Complainant’s residence being at Patna,” she said.

“A plain reading of the subject FIR is clearly indicative of the fact that no such consequence of such alleged act has ensued within the State of Bihar,” she stated.

The maximum that may be done in such instance, is for the FIR to be registered as a ‘Zero FIR’ and the same may be forwarded to the Police Station having jurisdiction over the matter. The transfer of probe to CBI at the behest of Bihar police is ‘wholly without jurisdiction’, she stated.

However, the Bihar government referred to legal provisions and said that it had the jurisdiction as some of the consequences of the offence were there under its jurisdiction.

It said: “The Mumbai Police had only been carrying out inquest proceedings u/s 174 / 175 CrPC…The proceedings are only for the purpose of ascertaining the ‘cause of death’.

“The proceedings come to an end on ascertaining the ‘cause of death’ and in any case, when the post-mortem report is received. In the present case, on receipt of the post-mortem report by Mumbai Police June 25, the proceedings…came to a close. Admittedly, no FIR has been registered by the Mumbai Police. Hence it has not been carrying out any legal ‘investigation’ as envisaged in law after receiving the post-mortem report,” the Bihar government said.