New Delhi: Opposing a CBI probe in the Sushant Singh Rajput death case, the Mumbai police told the Supreme Court on Saturday that it was carrying out an impartial investigation in the matter and alleged that that the registration of an FIR by Bihar Police was “politically motivated” and violated the principle of federalism.
The 34-year-old Bollywood actor was found hanging from the ceiling of his apartment in suburban Bandra in Mumbai on June 14.
In an affidavit filed before the top court, in response to a petition by Rhea Chakraborty seeking transfer of an FIR lodged against her by the Bihar police to Mumbai, the Mumbai police said the CBI should have waited for the apex court decision in the matter before registering the case.
The affidavit filed by police inspector posted at Bandra Police Station said that Bihar Police did not have the jurisdiction to investigate the FIR or examine witnesses and said the question of cooperation by the Mumbai Police into the simultaneous inquiry by the Bihar Police did not arise.
It alleged that that the registration of FIR in Patna by Bihar Police was “politically motivated and violated the principles of federalism enshrined in the Constitution”.
The Mumbai police said that the Bihar police could only have registered a ‘Zero FIR (crime not falling in its jurisdiction) and sent it to Mumbai and did not have the legal authority to transfer it to the CBI.
“Pending the present proceedings the CBI ought not have gone ahead and registered the case with it as also constituted a team for conducting the investigation therein.
“It ought to have awaited the final decision of the present proceedings at the hands of the Supreme Court,” the Mumbai police said. It said that the “indecent haste with which the CBI has proceeded in this regard speaks for itself, regarding the bonafides of all involved in this exercise.”
“Neither the judicial jurisdiction lay in the state of Bihar nor the investigative jurisdiction lay with the Bihar Police, in so far as the unfortunate death in issue is concerned…. Neither any cause nor any consequence, relating to the said unfortunate death, as spelt out by law, has even remotely occurred in the state of Bihar, much less at the place where the said FIR is registered,” it said.
The police also denied that quarantining of IPS officer Vinay Tiwary was aimed at obstructing the investigation by the Bihar Police.
‘Plea infructuous’
Meanwhile, Sushant’s father told the Supreme Court on Saturday that actress Rhea Chakraborty’s plea for transfer of the FIR, in which she has been accused of abetting his son’s suicide, from Patna to Mumbai is now “infructuous” after the CBI took over the case. In his elaborate 27-page response affidavit, Rajput’s father Krishna Kishore Singh opposed Rhea’s plea and noted that the actress had once tweeted urging Home Minister Amit Shah to order a CBI probe in the case. (PTI)
