Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) chief Iqbal Chahal on Thursday said that Bihar IPS officer Vinay Tiwari, who arrived in Mumbai to investigate the death of actor Sushant Singh Rajput, was quarantined following the government of India’s guidelines. Chahal added that the BMC has advised the officer to conduct his proceedings into the case using IT platforms.
"I respectfully submit that we are just following Govt of India’s guidelines on quarantining domestic flyers for 14 days. We are nowhere preventing the officer from performing his duties but only politely advised them to use IT platforms for meetings in COVID pandemic times, as all of us are doing it regularly every day since last four months while performing our duties," the BMC chief told FPJ.
Tiwari, who has been assigned to head the probe into late actor Sushant Singh Rajput's death case by Bihar DGP Gupteshwar Pandey, was quarantined by the BMC immediately after his arrival in Mumbai on Sunday.
Earlier, BMC Additional Municipal Commissioner P Velrasu, advised the IPS officer to conduct his proceedings virtually through Zoom, Google Meet, Jio Meet or Microsoft Teams. Velrasu, in a letter, said that this was in view of the COVID-19 pandemic situation.
"In view of the prevailing coronavirus pandemic in Bihar, it is advised that the officer conduct his proceedings with various concerned officials of the Govt. of Maharashtra on digital platforms, such as Zoom/Google Meet/Jio Meet/Microsoft Teams or other such digital platforms to interact. This will not only ensure that the officer does not transmit COVID-19 infection to the officials whom he will contact, in view of corona virus pandemic in Bihar, nor he gets infected by coronavirus during his physical visits to various officials of Govt. of Maharashtra in Mumbai," read the letter.
Meanwhile, the Supreme Court on Wednesday had questioned the quarantining of the IPS officer and said that it did not send a good message. The top court has also asked the state of Maharashtra to put on record the details of the investigation. Further, the court assured that the concern expressed by the late actor's family about the Mumbai Police destroying evidence will be taken care of.
Moreover, the Sushant Singh Rajput death case will now be probed by the Central Bureau Of Investigation (CBI). The Central Government gave its nod for a CBI probe following Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar's recommendation.
"Central Bureau of Investigation has received notification from the Central Government and the agency will take up the investigation of Sushant Singh Rajput's death case," CBI said.
