Late actor Sushant Singh Rajput's 74-year-old father Kishore Kumar Singh has urged the Supreme Court to dismiss a petition by actress Rhea Chakraborty to transfer the case filed by him in Patna to Mumbai, on the grounds that the CBI has now taken over the probe removing her grievance that Patna police’s investigation won’t be fair.Referring to her appeal to the Union home minister through social media platform for a CBI inquiry, he says the Centre has accepted her request and so she should not have any grievance in this regard. In a counter-affidavit, he has alleged that Rhea has now made a U-turn against a CBI probe and pointed out that transfer of a case could be only at the post-cognizance stage when the matter is before a criminal court and not at the stage of investigation.Also cited in the 27-page counter-affidavit are two judgments on the CBI inquiry in two states when the consent is only taken from one state that say consent of another state is not required, once the consent is given from the state which had registered the FIR.
Singh claims this is exactly his case.He has also attacked the Maharashtra Police for tarnishing his image in the Apex Court by dubbing his FIR a "political issue" and undermining "the feelings of a father who lives in Patna and who has sufficient proof and belief that it is due to the Petitioner's continued criminal actions for over a period of one year that has caused the death of his only son”.
"If the Respondent No.3 (Mumbai Police) has found no evidence qua the Petitioner in 54 days of inquiry, it only reflects one conclusion that the Respondent No.3 is trying to shield the Petitioner for the reason best known to them," says the counter-affidavit.Maharashtra Home Minister Anil Deshmukh has stated that the state government has submitted status of inquiry by Mumbai Police into Sushant's death as sought by the Supreme Court, but its registry claims no such report has been yet received.He accused the Mumbai Police of conducting "an eye wash in the name of the inquiry" as "the petitioner, with whom the deceased had a live-in relationship till June 8, 2020 (6 days before his death), was examined four days after the death of the deceased and examined many witnesses, which do not lie within ambit and scope of investigation of a criminal offence”.
Singh says it is unknown under what provision of CrPC the witnesses were examined and if it is under preliminary inquiry, it should be limited to seven days as per an Apex Court ruling of 2014 he refers, noting that so many witnesses were examined but no FIR has been registered. He also does not rule out the possibility of destruction/tampering of evidence and influencing the witnesses.He questions Rhea calling it a suicide "when she herself planned and abetted it in the circumstances culled out in detail in the FIR”.
Moreover, he says the inquiry pending before Bandra's additional chief metropolitan magistrate is only to ascertain the cause of the death of Sushant and not an investigation.Expressing surprise that the Mumbai Police found no culpable role of the petitioner during the investigation, the affidavit says Singh had "stated in detail the active role of the Petitioner in abetting the suicide of the deceased and misappropriating his money".
