Accusing the family of Sushant Singh Rajput and their legal advisors of “interfering and tampering with the investigations”, Rhea Chakraborty’s lawyers have warned that they will bring it to the notice of the appropriate courts.
Advocate Satish Maneshinde, who represents Rhea Chakraborty and her brother Showik, said that the kin and lawyers of the late actor are raising doubts on the probe by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) and also the conclusions of the AIIMS forensic team. “The CBI is independently and impartially investigating both the cases and the agency is supposed to be insulated and free from any interference,” Maneshinde said, referring to the probe into the actor’s death and the offshoot drugs cases.
However, he said it is disturbing to learn that Sushant’s family and their lawyers “are interfering and tampering with the investigations”, putting pressure on the AIIMS team by speaking to them during investigations and releasing purported audio conversations and information to the media in order to pressurise and tamper with the potential witnesses.
“Sushant’s family lawyer [Vikas Singh] is supposed to have said that he is going to meet the CBI Director to get the family’s pre-determined path of investigations into SSR’s death. It is very disturbing to read such information in the media as attempts are being made to get a pre-determined result in the case,” Maneshinde pointed out.
He made it clear that if “any further attempts” are made in this direction, it would be brought to the notice of the appropriate courts. Maneshinde’s statement came shortly after a Mumbai Special Court extended the judicial custody of Rhea and Showik by another fortnight till October 20.
Rhea's judicial remand
A Mumbai Special Court on Tuesday extended the judicial custody of Rhea and her brother Showik until October 20 in the drug related case that came up while investigating the death of Sushant Singh Rajput, officials said. The siblings were presented before the Special NDPS Court as their judicial custody of 14 days ended.
They had applied for bail in the Bombay High Court, on which the final arguments were heard by Justice S.V. Kotwal on September 29, who has reserved the final order on it.
Rhea was arrested on September 9 by the Narcotics Control Bureau (NCB) which is probing the drugs angle in the death of Bollywood actor Sushant, who was Rhea’s live-in partner.
Besides her, 19 others including her brother Showik Chakraborty, drug peddlers, suppliers and persons linked with the film industry have also been arrested so far, and several top actresses have been questioned.
FIR against sisters
Meanwhile, in a related development, Sushant’s sisters — Priyanka Singh (New Delhi) and Meetu Singh (Mumbai) — recently moved the Bombay High Court to get the FIR lodged against them by Rhea, accusing them of administering medicines based on a bogus prescription, quashed.
“A bare perusal of the complaint and the FIR shows that it does not make out any cognisable offence. The drugs that have sought to be allegedly given by Tarun Kumar are not banned drugs,” the petition said.
Maneshinde said both the FIRs registered in a Patna police station by Sushant’s father Krishna Kishore Singh and the complaint by Rhea against the late actor’s sisters in the Bandra police station have been forwarded to the CBI. Rhea, 28, and Showik, 24, are among the 20 people, including several drug peddlers, suppliers and Bollywood-linked personalities, who have been arrested in connection with the NCB’s probe into the narcotics angle in Sushant’s case.
Mumbai Police take on trolls
Targeted from various quarters after the death of Sushant Singh Rajput, the Mumbai Police has now decided to hit back at social media trolls on various platforms, an official said on Tuesday. Cyber Cell Deputy Commissioner of Police Rashmi Karandikar said that several social media account holders have been trolling the Mumbai Police Commissioner Param Bir Singh on Twitter, Instagram, Facebook using abusive language against him and the police force.
“Most of these accounts are fake ... We will be taking action against all these fake account holders. Last month, another FIR was registered against a culprit who used a morphed image of the official Twitter account of the city Police Commissioner,” Karandikar said, adding a probe is underway in both matters.
The developments came around 110 days after Rajput’s death, coinciding with the AIIMS’ report that has ruled out all speculation alleging the actor was murdered.
Police sources said that there may be around 80,000-100,000 such ‘fake accounts’ created on various social media platforms after the actor’s death June 14 and some are allegedly being shut down now. As per the Cyber Police’s preliminary analysis, the slanderous or abusive posts were uploaded from India and even several countries in Europe, Scandinavia, South East Asia and other locations targeting the Mumbai Police.
