Actor Rhea Chakraborty has filed an additional plea in the Supreme Court suggesting that she is being tried by the media. Chakraborty had earlier filed a plea in the top court seeking to transfer the investigation in the death of actor Sushant Singh Rajput from Bihar to Mumbai.
"The issue is blown out of proportion in media. Media Channels are examining and cross-examining all the witnesses in the case. Petitioner is already convicted by media even before a fowl-play (sic) in the death of Sushant Singh Rajput is established ... Media had convicted accused in 2G and Talwar case in similar fashion where each and every accused was later on found innocent by the Courts," Chakraborty stated in her plea.
Chakraborty suggested that she is being made a "scapegoat" in this politically charged case since there has been no "whisper of the same (nepotism) in power corridors" over the deaths of actors Ashutosh Bhakre and Sameer Sharma who also allegedly died by suicide.
Two months after actor Sushant Singh Rajput died by suicide, the controversy surrounding his death does not end. The 34-year-old Chhichore star was found dead in his rented Bandra apartment on June 14. News reports suggest he was allegedly suffering from depression even as whispers of nepotism in the industry was making the rounds.
The top court had first heard the matter on August 5 when it had expressed its apprehension whether the Mumbai police had covered all aspects of this case. It had also pulled up the Mumbai police for quarantining the Bihar cop who was in Mumbai to probe the matter. The Supreme Court will hear this matter on August 11.
What is the matter in the Supreme Court
On July 25, Rajput's father Krishna Kishore Singh filed an FIR in Patna accusing Chakraborty on 16 charges including abetment of suicide, criminal breach of trust, forgery and charges under provision of the Indian Mental Health Act. Chakraborty's family have also been named in the FIR.
On July 28, the actress filed a plea in the apex court seeking a transfer of the investigation from Patna to Mumbai. She submitted that she has been falsely implicated and that the charges against her are nothing but an act of "connivance" between Rajput's father and the State of Bihar. In her plea, Chakraborty said she "received various death and rape threats and she is in deep trauma due to loss of deceased, which has multiplied further due to the media sensitivity of the case."
Shortly thereafter, Bihar and Mumbai police filed a caveat in the case as well. This means that the top court must hear them before deciding on the issue. On August 5, when the matter was heard for the first time, the Centre sought to be impleaded in the matter as well. Representing the Union, Solicitor General Tushar Mehta said the Centre had accepted Bihar's request for a Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) probe in this matter.
The apex court had also given all parties – Mumbai and Bihar Police, the Centre, along with the Chakraborty and Singh families time to file a reply.
What did Bihar Police say
In its affidavit, Bihar Police said a case was registered at Singh's behest. According to the affidavit, Singh complained that Chakraborty met Rajput in 2019 "with a sole intention to grab crores of rupees" of his "hard earned money". In his complaint, Singh claimed Chakraborty "used to completely interfere in" his son's life and accused her of "attempting to give impression to the deceased actor that he is suffering from mental illness for which he required treatment". Singh further alleged that Rajput was given an "overdose of medicine", was being alienated from his family and that Rs15 crore of the Rs. 17 crores from Rajput's account was "transferred to accounts of person not connected with" him.
In its reply to the transfer plea, Bihar police alleged that Mumbai police was not cooperating with the investigation. It also accused the Mumbai police of taking sides with the actress. The police also said that by quarantining the Bihar cop probing the case in Mumbai was "nothing but a result of afterthought on part of Mumbai Police aimed at obstructing the investigation by the Patna Police".
What does the Mumbai Police say
Mumbai police has alleged that the case in Bihar is "politically motivated". In a reply filed before the Supreme Court on the transfer plea, Mumbai police opposed the transfer of the case to the CBI saying, its registration of the case was done in "indecent haste".
The affidavit further said that, "not a single legally permissible or sustainable ground existed" for the matter to be transferred to the CBI and that the father's statement to the police was an afterthought.