New Delhi: In a relief for Rhea Chakraborty, the Supreme Court on Friday dismissed a petition filed by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI), state of Maharashtra and the Bureau of Immigration challenging Bombay high court’s quashing of look-out-circulars (LOCs) issued against the actress, her brother Showik and her father Lt Col Indrajit Chakraborty (retd) in connection with the Sushant Singh Rajput death case.
A bench of Justices BR Gavai and KV Viswanathan verbally observed that the petition was “frivolous” and was filed merely because the accused were “high-profile”, Live Law reported.
“We are warning. You are filing such a frivolous petition, only because one of the accused is a high-profile person…It will be with exemplary cost. Both persons have deep roots in society,” Justice Gavai said when the CBI counsel sought a pass over of the matter, the report added.
“If you want the cost and some compliments to CBI, we will pass-over,” Justice Gavai said.
In February, the Bombay High Court cancelled the LOC issued by the CBI against Rhea Chakraborty and her two family members in 2020 in connection with the death of Sushant Singh Rajput.
A bench of justices Revati Mohite Dere and Manjusha Deshpande allowed petitions filed by Rhea Chakraborty, her brother and their father against the LOCs issued against them that prevented them from travelling abroad.
A LOC issued by an investigating agency can request the Bureau of Immigration to detain a person, stop the person from boarding a plane or simply inform the agency concerned about the person’s exit from the country. The LOC was lifted by the high court order, weeks after it was suspended by a vacation bench in December to let Rhea Chakraborty travel to Dubai for a meet-and-greet event, despite CBI’s strong opposition.
At previous hearings, the bench had questioned the rationale of issuing LOCs because there was a first information report (FIR) against the actor based solely on the registration of an FIR.
