Senior advocate Vikas Singh who represented Sushant Singh Rajput’s father in the top court called the decision to approve the ongoing CBI investigation in the case, a “landmark judgment” and the “first of its kind in a suicide case”. Though there have been such judgments in cases of criminal breach of trust cases, he said this is the first such in an abetment to suicide case.
A single-judge bench of Justice Hrishikesh Roy said in his judgment on Wednesday that the records of the case produced before the court do not prima-facie suggest any wrongdoing by the Mumbai Police. However, their obstruction to the Bihar police team in Mumbai could have been avoided since it gave suspicion to the bonafide of their inquiry.
The BMC had placed a Bihar police SP under quarantine when he had reached the city for investigation.
Commenting on this, Singh said that so far no investigation was conducted at all by the Mumbai Police in the case and that investigation was conducted for the first time in the case only by the Patna police, but that was obstructed. “The obstruction is the reason the family felt the need for a CBI investigation. They felt they would never get justice,” Singh said.
The apex court said that the Mumbai Police was only conducting a limited inquiry into the cause of unnatural death and that it cannot be said with certainty that they will investigate other aspects of the unnatural death by registering an FIR.
Referring to the Mumbai Police not yet registering an FIR in the case, the court said that the current proceeding carried out by the Mumbai Police is not in the nature of an investigation, but is limited to an inquiry to ascertain the cause of unnatural death. Therefore, the court said, it is ‘pre-emptive’ and ‘premature’ to hold that a parallel investigation is being carried out by it. The court declared that it is not an investigation of a crime but an inquiry limited to a definite purpose.
About the jurisdiction of Patna police, Justice Roy said that the allegation of criminal breach of trust and misappropriation of money which would be eventually accounted for in Patna (when Sushant’s father resides) could prima-facie indicate the lawful jurisdiction of the Patna police. “The Patna police committed no illegality in registering the complaint,” the court said. It also held as lawful the consent given by the Bihar government for entrusting the investigation to the CBI.
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