The Supreme Court on Friday denied the plea filed by Priyanka Singh, the sister of late actor Sushant Singh Rajput, challenging the Bombay High Court’s rejection of quashing the FIR filed by the Mumbai Police based on actor Rhea Chakraborty‘s complaint, Live Law reported.
Rhea Chakraborty, Rajput’s girlfriend, filed the case on September 7, 2020. She is being investigated by several agencies after the actor’s family accused her of playing a role in his death. Chakraborty is presently out on bail.
Rajput died by suicide on June 14, 2020. Subsequently, his family filed cases against Rhea Chakraborty and her brother Showik Chakraborty for mishandling Rajput’s money and procuring drugs for the late actor. During the investigation, the Narcotics Control Bureau said that the siblings had facilitated drug deliveries and paid for drugs.
After 91 days of the actor’s demise, Rhea Chakraborty had alleged that Rajput’s sisters- Priyanka Singh and Meetu Singh – had conspired with a doctor, Tarun Kumar, to procure a “false” prescription to procure banned medicines. A case was filed by the Mumbai Police on the basis of this complaint after Rhea Chakraborty submitted WhatsApp chats exchanged between Rajput and Priyanka Singh in support of her accusations under Sections 420 (cheating) and 306 (abetment of suicide), under the Indian Penal Code.
In turn, both the sisters had registered another FIR claiming that Rhea Chakraborty intended to “concoct a whole new story entirely different from the statements made” by her in the Supreme Court and before the media.
Since the case was transferred to the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) and the case against the sisters are filed with Mumbai Police, they sought an investigation into the “malicious and mala fide activities of the Mumbai Police and the Maharashtra government, for which they have sought damages under public law.”
During the previous hearing at the Bombay High Court on February 15, senior advocate Vikas Singh, who is representing the sisters, questioned the delay of 91 days in filing her FIR. He said that the FIR could not be registered with the Mumbai Police when the Supreme Court had transferred the case to the CBI.
Rhea Chakraborty’s lawyer advocate Satish Maneshinde had clarified that after Rajput’s prescription was leaked on social media, after which she realised that the medicines were bought through the prescriptions sent by the late actor’s sister and that those medicines could contribute to the cause for his death. He also said that Rhea Chakraborty could not have filed a complaint with the CBI, so she approached the Mumbai Police.
Senior advocate Devadatt Kamat, representing the Mumbai Police, had said that the prescribed medicines were advised to Rajput without any online consultation and they also appear in the list of psychotropic substances under the Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances Act.
Singh argued that the allegations were baseless as according to the Telemedicine Practice Guidelines, the medicines could have been prescribed to a patient in the first consultation.
Following the hearing, the Bombay High Court dismissed the case against co-accused Meetu Singh while keeping the case on hold against Priyanka Singh as they found a prima facie case against her. The court had added that “there should not be any impediment against investigation against her”. Following which, she moved to the Supreme Court challenging the High Court’s order.
On Friday, the CBI said that the Mumbai Police’s decision of filing the FIR was a “total disregard to the law” claiming that multiple FIRs cannot be lodged pertaining to the same case.
While transferring the FIR to CBI, Mumbai Police defended that neither the two FIRs were against the same accused nor alleging the same ploy and thus does not violate the sister’s fundamental rights.
The apex court mentioned that the FIR stands against Priyanka Singh and Dr Tarun Kumar of Delhi’s Ram Manohar Lohia Hospital, New Delhi, based on whose prescription Rajput procured the medicines.
