On Tuesday, 28 July, an FIR was filed against actor Rhea Chakraborty based on a complaint by Sushant Singh Rajput's father Krishna Kishore Singh. Rhea Chakraborty has been accused of abetting the suicide of the actor.
Sushant's father's lawyer Vikas Singh told The Quint why it took more than 40 days for his father to file an FIR and how the Mumbai Police has been going on a wild goose chase. The lawyer also gave us details of what happened after Rhea Chakraborty left Sushant’s residence.
When did Sushant’s father approach you to take up this case?
Vikas Singh: He (Sushant’s father) decided to take up the case seven-eight days back when he came to me. Basically, he was in mourning for 40 days. We have mourning of 40 days in Bihar. During these 40 days he was seeing what was happening in Mumbai. And they (Mumbai Police) were going on a wild goose chase and not going behind the real culprit.
They were aware of the real culprit, according to us, from the beginning. We had also said people who are with him and who have been taking care of his medical condition should be the ones to be questioned. And simultaneously Rhea was also saying that let us go for a CBI inquiry. So it was looking as if the Mumbai Police and Rhea were acting in tandem. They are not accusing her and she is asking for a CBI inquiry, that means the whole idea was to somehow give her a complete clean chit and the matter is made completely iniquitous. At that stage when he came to me, and since no FIR had been registered in Mumbai, I said that we should get it registered in Patna because in criminal justice prudence an FIR can be registered wherever.
Even a part of cause of action has risen and in Patna the father was living. He was suffering the consequences of the death because the mother is not there. He is the only one really speaking and suffering the consequence and secondly the offence of abetment to suicide is not an offence committed in a day or two. It’s an event that happens by controlling the mind of the person who ultimately takes this step. So in that process what she did was distance him from the family, specially the father. She didn’t allow the father to talk to him. Didn’t let him take his calls. Even if he tried talking to him through the bodyguard that phone was not allowed to be given to Sushant. So the first step in this conspiracy was to make him distant from the family who could counsel him in these troubled times. They slowly declared him a mental case and took him to all kinds of doctors, over-drugged him etc, then removed the servants, removed the bodyguard. So it was an event which happened over a long period of time and according to me part of the cause of action definitely is in Patna, so Patna police had the authority to register the FIR.
When you know that the Mumbai Police is not acting accordingly, why didn’t you approach them?
Vikas Singh: If we were to say to the Mumbai Police that she is the prime accused and knowing very well that she needs to be interrogated, if we had given this complaint to the Mumbai Police and they would have, with their own oblique intention, said that they have interrogated Rhea and there is nothing and that she was madly in love with Sushant etc and filed a closure report then where would we have been? Investigation can’t be done by us so there was no point of going to an institution. I am not talking about the entire Mumbai Police but at least the people who are handling Sushant Singh Rajput’s case. As far as people handling this case is concerned there was no faith in them to do a impartial investigation and that is why we went to Patna Police.
According to the Supreme Court there has to be clear evidence of an intent to make the person kill themselves. Just cruelty, confinement etc is not enough to prove abetment to suicide. So what do you have for specific intent?
Vikas Singh: These are things I don’t want to comment on now because these are things that will come out in the trial. Let all the evidence come first. But just to give a few pointers. What she did was over a period of time. She was the only one looking after his medical issues. Taking him to the doctor. She was the only person who knew what treatment was being done. She had cut off all contacts with the family and on 8th of June, knowing that she is the only person who knows how to take care of him, she left him abruptly. Did not share any medical details with anybody in the family, didn’t call anybody in the family and said that ‘look this person is in a bad shape, I can’t live with him but please take care of him, these are his medicines, this is the so and so doctor’.
She didn’t call anybody from the family. When she left, then Sushant called his sister who lives in Mumbai. On that very day his sister came and lived with him for four days trying to console him but she had no clue about the medicines etc. So they kept calling Rhea, she never picked up. She had blocked him so the call never went through. Sushant’s sister has a school-going daughter, so she had to go home. She left on the 12th and on 14th this incident happened. So there is direct evidence of her complicity in abetment to suicide. I don’t see much of a problem in the Supreme Court judgment that you are referring to.
All this drama that has been happening. What do you have to say about that? Bollywood mafia, this person, that person?
Vikas Singh: Well, that is why the case has been filed in Patna. It was not going in the right direction. We are not saying that he may not have been sort of victimised or he may not have faced ‘parivar vaad’ in Mumbai. That may have happened but that according to us is not the prime cause of the death. That may have contributed but that is not the prime cause. That could have been part of the overall inquiry, we don’t have any objection to that and that should now come to the Patna Police as they will look into that aspect as well. But that can’t be the prime cause. Prime cause was this only.
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