But plaint against other sister Meetu in bogus prescription case dropped
The Bombay High Court on Monday refused to quash an FIR registered against late Bollywood actor Sushant Singh Rajput’s sister Priyanka Singh and a New Delhi doctor in the alleged bogus medical prescription case, while it quashed the complaint filed against Sushant’s other sister Meetu Singh in the same case.
Hearing a petition challenging an FIR registered by the Mumbai Police on the basis of a complaint filed by late Sushant’s girlfriend Rhea Chakraborty in September last year, an HC Bench of Justices SS Shinde and MS Karnik ruled that the probe into the FIR in which Priyanka Singh and Dr Tarun Kumar of Ram Manohar Lohia Hospital have been named as accused would continue.
“There is prima facie case found against Priyanka Singh and there should not be any impediment against investigation against her,” the two-member HC Bench observed.
However, the HC Bench quashed the complaint registered by the Mumbai Police against Sushant’s other sister Meetu Singh.
Reacting to the High Court’s order, Rhea’s lawyer Satish Maneshinde said, “We are satisfied with the verdict. It appears ultimately Rhea Chakraborty’s cry for justice and truth has prevailed.”
It may be recalled that on September 7 last year, Sushant’s ex-girlfriend and actress Rhea Chakraborty filed a complaint against the late actor’s sister Priyanka Singh and a New Delhi-based doctor for alleged forgery and violation of Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances (NDPS) Act, 1985, and Tele Medicine Practice Guidelines, 2020. She had also named Sushant’s other sister Meetu Singh in her complaint.
Rhea — who was under the scanner of the CBI, Enforcement Directorate (ED) and Narcotics Control Bureau (NCB) in the Sushant death case — had lodged a written complaint with the Bandra Police station against Sushant’s New Delhi-based sister Priyanka Singh, Dr Tarun Kumar of Ram Manohar Lohia Hospital and others with forgery under Indian Penal Code, 1860. She had accused Priyanka, Dr Kumar and others for allegedly generating a bogus medical prescription depicting SSR as an Out Patient Department person.
On their part, the late actor’s sisters Priyanka and Meetu had challenged the FIR registered against them and claimed that the FIR was lodged to “concoct a whole new story entirely different from the statements made” by Rhea before the Supreme Court and media platforms.
They had sought investigation into the malicious and malafide activities of the Mumbai Police and the Maharashtra Government, for which they had sought damages under public law.
Senior Advocate Vikas Singh, appearing for the sisters, argued that there was a delay of 91 days in filing the FIR, which was not explained by Chakraborty. He also pointed out that the allegations of prescribing banned medicines were baseless as the medicines could have been prescribed to a patient in the first consultation as per the Telemedicine Practice Guidelines.
He had also submitted that the FIR could not have been registered by the Mumbai Police as the investigation in the Sushant Singh Rajput case had been transferred to the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) by the Supreme Court.
On their part, the Mumbai Police had then forwarded the complaint to the CBI that was investigating the death of the actor.
The relevant portion of Rhea’s complaint reads thus: “I say that during the course of my relationship with the deceased, the deceased had been undergoing treatment for various mental health issues and had been diagnosed as suffering from Bipolar Disorder by multiple renowned doctors. However, the deceased was not disciplined in respect of his treatment and would often abruptly stop his medication to the dismay of his doctors and myself. “I say that on the morning of 8 June 2020, the deceased had been on his phone incessantly and when I enquired what he was doing, he showed me the messages he was exchanging with his sister Priyanka Singh. I say that I was shocked upon reading the said messages as his sister Priyanka had sent him a list of medications to take. I explained to the deceased that given the seriousness of his condition, and the fact that he already had medications prescribed by doctors who had examined and treated him over several months, he ought not to take any other medication, least of all medication being prescribed by his sister who has no medical degree,” Rhea stated.
“I say that the deceased and I disagreed on this aspect and he insisted that he would only take the medicine his sister was prescribing him. The deceased then proceeded to ask me to leave the house as his other sister Meetu Singh was coming to live with him and would take care of him. It was thus that I came to live our residence at Mount Blanc, Bandra, and this was also the last time that I saw the deceased alive,” Rhea pointed out.
Making a serious charge against Priyanka, Dr Kumar and others, Rhea stated in her complaint: “It has now come to light that his sister Priyanka had subsequently on the same day had a prescription by one Dr Tarun Kumar, an Associate Professor of Cardiology from Dr Ram Manohar Lohia Hospital, New Delhi. I say that prima facie the said document appears forged and fabricated. In addition, the said Dr. Tarun Kumar appears to have prescribed medication controlled under the Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances Act, 1985 to the deceased without any consultation as mandated by law.”
“In fact, the drugs prescribed by Dr. Kumar were prohibited from being prescribed electronically under the Telemedicine Practice Guidelines issued on 25th March 2020, which constitutes Appendix 5 of the Indian Medical Council (Professional Conduct, Etiquette and Ethics Regulation, 2002),” Rhea added.
It may be recalled that Sushant was found hanging from a ceiling fan in his closed room of his sixth floor duplex flat at Mont Blanc building at Bandra’s Carter Road in north-west Mumbai, on June 14, 2020.