Mumbai: A year after Sushant Singh Rajput’s alleged suicide on June 14, 2020, a series of questions remain unanswered.
The case had led to allegations and counter-allegations between the families of the actor and his then live-in partner, Rhea Chakraborty.
It subsequently degenerated into political warfare with the BJP alleging foul play in the case. The saffron party targeted the Maharashtra Vikas Aghadi (MVA) government, especially tourism minister Aaditya Thackeray, for “protecting” Sushant’s “murderers”.
Here are the four questions that continue to haunt, India Today reported.
Why is the CBI keeping mum?
Following a Supreme Court directive, CBI took over the investigation from Mumbai Police. A three-member CBI team camped in Mumbai between August and September 2020. The sleuths interrogated Sushant’s family, friends and ex-girlfriend Rhea.
However, the agency has not made the result of its investigation public. It has also not acknowledged the finding of a team of AIIMS doctors in October 2020 that Sushant had hanged himself.
The CBI is expected to submit its report to the Supreme Court. Interestingly, Subodh Jaiswal, who was the Director-General of Police in Maharashtra when the Sushant case became a talking point in the country, now heads the CBI. If he validates the CBI’s investigation, it will also be a certificate of efficiency for Mumbai Police, who had maintained from the beginning that it was a case of suicide.
Who advised the filing of an FIR in Patna?
Sushant’s father KK Singh had filed an FIR in Patna on June 25, 2020 against Rhea, accusing her of abetment in suicide. He had alleged that Rhea had siphoned off Rs 15 crore from the actor’s bank account.
This FIR became the basis for the Supreme Court to transfer the investigation into the case to the CBI from the Mumbai Police on August 5, 2020.
It has emerged that a Maharashtra cadre IPS officer, who has his origins in Bihar, had advised Sushant’s well-wishers to file the FIR in Patna to keep the Mumbai Police out of the investigation. His act was an outcome of the rivalry among the senior officers of Mumbai Police. The CBI is yet to name the officer
What happens to the case against Sushant’s sister Priyanka Singh?
Rhea had filed a case against Sushant’s sister Priyanka Singh on September 6, 2020, for allegedly forging and fabricating a medical prescription for him. Priyanka had sent her brother a list of antidepressants on WhatsApp in April on the advice of Delhi-based doctor Tarun Kumar. Rhea had alleged that these illegally prescribed medicines took a heavy toll on Sushant’s mental health.
On February 11, 2021, the Bombay High Court upheld the case against Priyanka. This has paved the way for the Mumbai Police to interrogate her. It is not sure what will come of it though.
Where is the drug syndicate?
On September 5, 2020, Rhea had reportedly admitted to her interrogators that she was procuring marijuana for Sushant.
This admission made the Narcotics Control Bureau (NCB) to interrogate 33 people associated with him in any capacity. The agency had claimed that Bollywood had become a den of drugs, which had to be uprooted.
It earned some brownie points when it questioned stars like Deepika Padukone, Shraddha Kapoor, Arjun Rampal and Sara Ali Khan in September last year.
The NCB, however, has failed to catch any big fish. Its action was mainly focused on peddlers and small consumers. As of now, the NCB does not have any information on any big Bollywood celebrity allegedly involved in the drugs racket.
