More than two months after the suicide of actor Sushant Singh Rajput, his girlfriend and prime accused actress Rhea Chakraborty broke her 'silence' on Tuesday. She has issued a statement with the message that her 'silence should not be considered as her weakness'. Further, Rhea has put a full stop to the attempts being made to drag in Shiv Sena leader Aditya Thackeray in the case, saying she does not know him personally.
In a lengthy statement, circulated through her counsel Satish Maneshinde, the actress has spoken about her 'strained' relationship with Sushant's family and her own anxiety issues. She has accused Sushant's sister Priyanka of groping her and misbehaving with several men and women, at a party.
"I do not know and have never met Aaditya Thackeray till today. Neither have I ever spoken to him telephonically or otherwise. Though I have heard of him as a leader of the Shiv Sena," Rhea said in her statement, basically trashing the narrative doing the rounds that the young politician is linked to the case. She has also requested a section of the media to refrain from speculation.
"I have remained silent to all allegations. But my silence should not be mistaken for weakness. Truth will remain the same," Rhea has said.
The statement further details how she met Sushant and the duo started began dating from April 2019 and finally moved into the Mont Blanc building in December 2019, which was where Sushant died by suicide on June 14. She has referred to an incident, wherein after attending a party, Sushant's sister Priyanka had groped her.
"In the initial months of their relationship, when Rhea had visited Sushant’s house, his sister Priyanka and her husband Siddharth were living with him. On one night, in and around April 2019, Rhea and Priyanka had gone out to a party, where the latter had consumed copious amounts of alcohol and was behaving inappropriately with men as well as women at that party," the statement reads.
After going back home, Rhea claims to have been sleeping in Sushant's room, "when she suddenly awoke to find Priyanka had got into bed with her and was groping her. Rhea was extremely shocked and demanded that she leave the room immediately. Subsequently, Rhea herself left the house and later informed Sushant as to what had transpired and he got into an argument with his sister. Due to this incident, the relationship between Sushant’s family and Rhea had been strained since inception," the statement reads, adding that thus was her name excluded by the family from the list of 20 people who were to attend Sushant's last rites.
Further speaking about the allegations by the Singh family, Rhea has termed these as 'total nonsense and afterthought' as no one in Sushant's family complained until 40 days after his death. "They are educated and have an IPS officer, OP Singh, in the family. Their allegations are totally concocted and fabricated for ulterior purposes. Rhea denies all allegations of abetment of suicide, misappropriation of funds etc," according to the statement.
She has further said that Sushant had been calling his family, requesting them to come down to Mumbai and meet him. It was his sister Meethu, who agreed to come and live with him, only after several days of the actor 'crying over the phone' and requesting her to do so. She has also claimed that before Meethu could arrive, Sushant had himself asked her (Rhea) to leave the house for some time.
"Rhea had been suffering from her own anxiety issues and often endured panic attacks. Sushant’s conduct also aggravated these conditions. Even though she was desirous of seeing her family, she was not at all comfortable with leaving Sushant. The very same day, June 8, 2020, she arranged to have her therapy session and requested Sushant if she could leave after the session. However, he told her to leave immediately before his sister Meethu arrived. Thus, she reluctantly left," the statement reads.
According to Rhea, both Mumbai Police as well as the Enforcement Directorate (ED) have been provided with her financial documents, which shows that she has not received a single amount from Sushant's accounts. She has claimed that neither of the two agencies have found any incriminating material against her.
Reiterating that Bihar Police have no jurisdiction to probe the case, Rhea has claimed that the FIR was registered at the behest of the political leadership in that state. "The manner in which the matter is being dealt with and also the kind of comments that were made before the Supreme Court in the previous hearing, make it evident that this has become more about politics than the truth. Unwanted and irrelevant submissions are being made. The number of Politicians taking advantage of this case on the eve of elections in Bihar," Rhea has pointed out.
