Questions his cook; takes laptop, case diary from Mumbai Police
The CBI on Friday began the probe into film actor Sushant Singh Rajput’s mysterious death and questioned his cook even as the SIT members collected case diary and other relevant documents from the Mumbai Police that was probing the issue as an accidental death under the Criminal Procedure Code (CrPC).
The Enforcement Directorate (ED) on its part questioned Sushant’s elder sister Priyanka Singh and recorded her statement in a related money laundering probe.
An eight-member CBI team led by its Joint Director Manoj Sridhar, which landed in Mumbai on Thursday evening, hit the ground running in the investigations into the Sushant’s death.
The team has divided its various members and assigned them specific tasks in the probe so as to finish the investigations into the sensational case as quickly as possible.
The CBI team’s first port of call during the day was the Bandra police station where a case of Accidental Death Report (ADR) had been registered in connection with Sushant’s death on June 14. The team members collected all documents and pieces of evidence, including autopsy and forensic reports.
The CBI team also collected the 56 statements that the Mumbai Police had earlier recorded during the investigations carried out under section 174 CrPC after the registration of an accidental death report (ADR). It took possession of Sushant’s laptop and mobile phone for investigations.
The CBI officials also met Deputy Commissioner of Police Abhishek Trimukhe, who was heading the Mumbai Police probe team.
On their part, the Mumbai Police and the Maharashtra Government have offered full cooperation to the CBI, which was entrusted with the investigations in the case by the Supreme Court on Wednesday.
Another group from the visiting CBI team brought the late actor’s cook Neeraj Singh to the Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO)-the Air Force Guest House at Santa Cruz where they questioned him. Neeraj, who was present at the late actor’s rented duplex flat at Bandra in north-west Mumbai where Sushant was found hanging on June 14, is a crucial witness in the case.
The CBI officials also questioned late Sushant’s few other staff members.
The team collected the case diary of the ADR and other important documents related to the investigation of the case, including autopsy and forensic reports. The viscera report is awaited and the SIT is also expected to get hold of Rajput’s phones, the sources said. The team will recreate the crime scene at the spot during the course of investigation, the sources said.
Meanwhile, the ED recorded the statement of Rajput’s sister Priyanka Singh under PMLA here, officials said. The ED is seeking information related to Rajput’s finances, personal and professional deals that Priyanka might be knowing in order to take the money laundering probe forward.
The ED had earlier recorded the statements of Rajput’s father KK Singh and another sister Meetu. On Thursday, filmmaker Rumi Jaffery’s statement was recorded by the agency in Mumbai.
The PMLA case is an offshoot of the Patna police FIR relating to the abetment to suicide case of Rajput in which actress Rhea Chakraborty, her family members and others are accused.
The visiting CBI team has made it clear that it will not arrest anyone in the case unless it has “concrete” evidence against him or her.
During the weekend, a few members of the CBI team, including officials from the Central Forensic Science Laboratory (CFSL), will visit the late actor’s flat at Mont Blanc building at Bandra’s Carter Road
As part of the money angle that is being looked into in the case, the CBI officials will visit the banks where Sushant maintained his personal and business accounts and obtain details, and obtain details necessary for the case.
In a complaint lodged against Rhea Chakraborty and her family members in Patna with the Patna police last month, Sushant’s father KK Singh had alleged that his son’s bank account transaction history showed he had Rs 17 crore in one account, of which Rs 15 crore had been transferred to an account that had nothing to do with him.
Sr Singh had also alleged that Rhea had left him and taken away from his son his treatment papers, laptop, credit cards, jewellery and cash. He has also said his son did not suffer from mental health issues before his relationship with Rhea.
In the coming days, the CBI will record the statements of people connected with the case. Apart from Rhea who has been accused by Sushant’s father and other family members of having abetted the 34-year-old actor’s suicide, the team will is expected to question several Bollywood personalities who were associated with either Sushant or Rhea.
