The Chief Metropolitan Magistrate has passed an office order on Sunday that in the present pandemic situation, past experience, to maintain law and order and administration of justice, any remand related to the Sushant Singh Rajput case will be carried out through video-conferencing only.
The order was passed on the same day that Rhea was surrounded and pushed around by a huge crowd of photojournalists and video journalists while making her way to the Narcotics Control Bureau (NCB) office after she was summoned to join the investigation in the drug angle of the case that the central agency is investigating.
As per the order passed by the CMM Sayali Dande, the link for conducting the remand proceedings will be shared with the NCB or any other investigating agency and should not be shared with anybody.
While the court has allowed advocates to appear before it in person, it has said they should not be accompanied by more than two juniors.
Further, the court said that ‘to maintain law and order situation’ as well as to save time taken in commuting the accused to the hospital and back, that COVID-19 tests should be carried out in the agency’s office itself.
Magistrate Dande also directed that the agency must ensure that it follows procedure for safe custody of the accused as per the criminal procedure code.
Welcoming the move, Rhea’s advocate Satish Maneshinde said, “it’s a welcome sign in view of the pandemic situation and the way the media is behaving…the manner in which they have been hounding the people concerned with the SSR case is horrendous.”
