he CBI, which has taken over the investigation in actor Sushant Singh Rajput’s case from the Bihar Police, lost no time in re-registering an FIR of alleged criminal conspiracy and abetment to suicide against his rumoured girlfriend Rhea Chakraborty.
The others named in the FIR are Rhea's brother Showik, father Indrajit, mother Sandhya, Rajput's house manager Samuel Miranda and one Shruti Modi.
The charges levelled against them are that of criminal conspiracy, abetment to suicide, wrongful restraint or confinement, theft, cheating, intimidation, among others.
Interestingly, the CBI has handed over the case to its elite Special Investigation Team branch, which is meant for investigating high profile corruption cases. The team has thus far investigated cases like the Westland VVIP chopper deal and liquor baron Vijay Mallya bank fraud case.
Incidentally, the investigation will be supervised by two senior IPS officers from the Gujarat cadre – one a DIG and the other a Joint Director, a CNN-News18 report said.
Sushant was found dead in his Mumbai apartment on June 14. The Mumbai Police said it was suicide but the Bihar Police launched a parallel probe last week after the actor's father filed a complaint against girlfriend Rhea Chakraborty, accusing her of transferring money from Sushant’s account, mentally harassing him and driving him to suicide. The complaint had further alleged that Rs 15 crore was missing from Sushant’s account.
Incidentally, Rhea also has to present herself before the Enforcement Directorate at 11 am on Friday in a money laundering case linked to Sushant’s finances. With that, at this point, three agencies - the Mumbai Police, the ED and the CBI - have been tasked with investigating Rajput's death and events leading up to it.
With the case acquiring political overtones in poll-bound Bihar, the Nitish Kumar government referred the matter to the CBI, even as the Mumbai Police was probing the case related to the alleged suicide. The Maharashtra government has objected to the move on the ground that Bihar does not have jurisdiction to initiate a probe in a different state. The matter is pending in the Supreme Court.
Rhea, who has denied all charges, also asked for a CBI probe last month. Breaking her silence last week, the actor said in a video released by her lawyers: "Truth shall prevail".
