On Wednesday the Indian Supreme Court ruled that the ongoing probe by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) into the case filed against actor Rhea Chakraborty and her family for allegedly abetting the suicide of Bollywood star Sushant Singh Rajput is lawful. It allowed the federal agency to continue its investigation whilst rejecting a plea by Chakraborty to transfer the case to the Maharashtra Police, reported Hindustan Times.
The judge under Article 142 of the Indian Constitution stated that a fair, competent and impartial investigation is required in the case. Thus, competing claims and acrimonious allegations of political interference by the Maharashtra and Bihar governments could not be overlooked.
“In such situation, there is reasonable apprehension of truth being a casualty and justice becoming a victim. To ensure public confidence in the investigation and to do complete justice in the matter, this court considers it appropriate to invoke the powers conferred by Article 142 of the Constitution. The ongoing investigation by the CBI is held to be lawful,” the court said.
Rajput was found dead at his Mumbai residence on June 14 in what police declared as an open-and-shut case of suicide. The post-mortem report ruled out any foul play. After a two-week silence, a political controversy erupted over the death, following which the Bihar Police constituted to probe the case after a complaint by the actor’s family alleging they received no cooperation from its Mumbai counterpart.
The jurisdictional turf war spilled into the legal arena as the Supreme Court was approached to decide if CBI could investigate the matter. The issue became divisive at multiple levels — between the Rajput and Chakraborty families, between the actors’ respective sets of fans, between the governments of the two states in question, and between the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and its former ally Shiv Sena — and has split Bollywood vertically.
The case also provoked a social media war between two camps largely constituting of the ‘insiders’ (having generational links to Bollywood) and ‘outsiders’ (first-generation actors and filmmakers).
On the other hand, Chakraborty and her supporters alleged that the Bihar government attempted to hijack the emotive issue for political capital ahead of the upcoming state assembly elections.
Her lawyer Satish Maneshinde recently stated that his client called for a CBI probe. Chakraborty, in her written arguments submitted before the Supreme Court, had said she was not opposed to a CBI probe provided it was ordered by the Supreme Court and not the Bihar government.
“The Supreme Court, after examining the facts and circumstances of the case and the report of the Mumbai Police, has observed that it will be the desired justice as Rhea herself called for a CBI investigation. It also observed that due to the allegations made by the two states [Bihar and Maharashtra] of political interference against each other, it would be in the interest of justice to hand over the case to the CBI,” the outlet quoted Maneshinde as saying.
He said Chakraborty will cooperate with the CBI investigation as she has with the Mumbai Police and the Enforcement Directorate. “Rhea maintains that the truth will remain the same whichever agency investigates the case,” Maneshinde added.
Bihar chief minister Nitish Kumar termed Wednesday’s verdict as a ‘victory of justice’. The state police chief Gupteshwar Pandey expressed satisfaction on the order. Whereas Indian Union law minister Ravi Shankar Prasad also weighed in on the verdict on Twitter, “Justice triumphs! The soul of late actor Sushant Singh Rajput will surely now rest in peace with the assurance of a fair investigation by the CBI.”
Rajput’s father, who is living with his daughter in Faridabad, was not available for comments but his family issued a statement thanking everybody for their support. “We are particularly thankful to chief minister Nitish Kumar for setting the wheel of justice in motion,” the statement said. “Today’s development has reaffirmed our faith in India as a robust democracy,” it added.
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