The Bombay High Court on Thursday reserved its order on the petition by actor Rhea Chakraborty, her brother Showik and their father, seeking quashing of the Look-Out Circulars (LOC) issued against them.
The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI), which is probing the case related to the death of actor Sushant Singh Rajput, had issued the LOCs. A bench of Justices Revati Mohite-Dere and Manjusha Deshpande questioned the CBI on its stand that mere registering of an FIR was sufficient to issue an LOC.
The CBI had also questioned the jurisdiction of the Bombay HC entertaining the plea considering that the FIR was registered by Rajput’s father in Patna and following order of the Patna HC, the central agency had taken over the probe.
Advocates for the trio – Abhinav Chandrachud, Prasanna Bhangale and Ayaz Khan – contended that the HC here had the jurisdiction since the CBI was probing the case here. The bench noted that the case is pending since 2020 and the CBI has not even filed its chargesheet.
CBI Advocate Shreeram Shirsat agreed that the Chakrabortys have cooperated with the probe. However, he could not tell when the chargesheet would be filed. He said that the LOC was issued based in apprehension.
In December last year, the HC had suspended LOC against Rhea and permitted permitted her to travel to Dubai for a week in relation to a pet food company for which she is a brand ambassador. Early, last year, the HC jad suspended LOC against her to attend an award function, however, she was unable to travel.
Chakraborty and Showik were arrested by the Narcotics Control Bureau (NCB) under the provisions of the Narcotics Drugs and Psychotropic Substances Act (NDPS) and are currently out on bail in the case.
