Sushant case: 'Mumbai Police refused to co-operate', states Bihar Govt in affidavit to SC

The Bihar Government alleged ‘non-coperation’ from the Mumbai Police in the Sushant Singh Rajput case in its affidavit filed before the Supreme Court on Friday. The government also asserted that the Bihar Police team were within their rights to investigate the case amid the jurisdiction argument, claimed by accused Rhea Chakraborty's lawyer, among others. It also highlighted the ‘forcible’ quarantine of IPS Officer Vinay Tiwari as an ‘afterthought’ and stated that it cast ‘serious aspersion’ on the Mumbai Police. 

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Bihar Police's affidavit to SC in Sushant case

The Bihar government in its plea, stated, “The members of SIT who reached Mumbai requested the concerned police officer to provide necessary support to carry out the investigation, however, Mumbai Police refused to co-operate and provide necessary support for the reasons best known to them.”

IPS Officer Vinay Tiwary was ‘released’ from quarantine by the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation on Friday, but not before the controversy of being asked to undergo a 14-day quarantine. 

“It is most respectfully submitted that the forcible quarantine of the IPS officer Mr. Vinay Tiwary is nothing but a result of afterthought on part of Mumbai Police aimed at obstructing the investigation by the Patna Police which is amply clear from the fact that when the four members of the SIT went to Mumbai, they were not quarantined," the statement read. 

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"The aforesaid fact casts a serious aspersion on the role of Mumbai Police who is apparently siding with the petitioner for the reasons best known to them,” the affidavit read.

It also claimed that the BMC refused to oblige, even after the IGP wrote a letter seeking his ‘release’ and the Supreme Court noting that the incident did not send out a ‘good message.’ The Bihar government called the act ‘contemptuous.’’ 

Reports of the Bihar Police being denied relevant documents and numerous politicians, including Chief Minister Nitish Kumar also speaking about non-co-co-operation had surfaced before, and this was confirmed by the affidavit. 

“The non-cooperation by the Mumbai Police with the Patna Police, who is already there in Mumbai for a probe, is very much clear from the fact that the Mumbai Police has not supplied any documents such as Inquest Report, Post Mortem report, FSL report, CCTV footage etc. to the Patna Police despite several requests made by the latter. It is most respectfully submitted that the Mumbai Police has been making lame excuses that only Mumbai Police has jurisdiction to investigate the offence which it has already been investigating despite the fact that no cognizable case had been registered in the case," it noted. 

The Bihar Police claimed that despite the hurdles, the members of SIT recorded statements of 10 persons, like friend Mahesh Shetty, cook Ashok Kumar, sister Mitu Singh, Ankita Lokhande, Dr. Kersi Chavda, bank manager Harsh, directors Rumi Zafri, Kushal Javari and Mukesh Chhabra, and house help Neeraj Singh. The officers also tried to get details of Sushant's bank details, amid charges of embezzlement on Rhea Chakraborty and others.

It also asserted ‘jurisdiction’ by stating, “It is most respectfully submitted that in the present case, the Patna Police has jurisdiction to register the FIR and investigate the same as per the law laid down by the constitution bench of this Hon’ble Court..." "The submission of the petitioner that the entire cause of action arose in Mumbai and the State of Bihar has no jurisdiction to register FIR is liable to be rejected in view of the provisions contained under section 179 Cr.P.C. Therefore what transpires from the bare perusal of section 179 Cr.P.C is that the offence can be tried either at the place where the offence has been committed or the consequence ensues.”

It also cited the ‘sensitivity of the matter and the inter-state ramification and presence of most of the accused in Mumbai’ for the Director-General of Police, Bihar to request the Bihar Government to recommend a CBI probe, which has now been accepted by the Centre.

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