Mumbai: Four years after the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) took over the case involving the death of actor Sushant Singh Rajput, the Congress has questioned the status and urged the central agency to present facts related to the case.
Sushant (34) who was born on January 21, 1986, who had acted in Bollywood films such as M S Dhoni: The Untold Story (2016), Kedarnath (2018) and Chhichhore (2019), was found dead on June 14, 2020, at his rented duplex flat in Mont Blanc building at Bandra in Mumbai where he was found hanging from a ceiling fan.
The CBI took over the case on August 5, 2000.
Popularly known as SSR, Rajput’s family has been seeking answers from the government and CBI.
Sushant was survived by his father Krishna Kishore Singh and four sisters - Nitu Singh aka Rani, Meetu Singh, Priyanka Singh and Shweta Singh Kirti.
“Four years have passed. Why is the CBI silent,” Maharashtra Pradesh Congress Committee general secretary Sachin Sawant wanted to know.
According to Sawant, the BJP has exploited the case politically.
In fact, the case snowballed into a major political issue involving the then Uddhav Thackeray-led Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) government.
On the intervening night of June 8 and 9, 2020, Disha Salian (28), a talent manager who had once worked with Rajput, had reportedly died by suicide by jumping from the 14th floor of Galaxy Regent building at Malad in the far western suburbs of Mumbai.
"It has been 1,460 days since Rajput's suicide, but the question of when the CBI will open its mouth remains unanswered,” said Sawant in what a question for the BJP-led NDA dispensation at the Centre and the Maha Yuti government in Maharashtra is.
The then Union MSME Minister Narayan Rane, who is now the BJP MP from Ratnagiri-Sindhudurg, and his son Nitesh Rane had been claiming that both the incidents are linked, and that Disha was raped before she was murdered and when Rajput came to know about this and was to expose those responsible, he too was killed.
Sawant went on to add that despite the Mumbai Police and AIIMS’ reports, the BJP politicised the issue for its nefarious purposes in Bihar.
“Three investigative systems were used, many were tortured during the probe, yet the CBI has not revealed the final outcome,” Sawant said.
The Congress leader pointed out that even the Supreme Court was satisfied with the Mumbai Police investigation, but it was the BJP’s political ploy to tarnish the MVA government and sully the city police’s image with the help of the former Bihar Director General of Police Gupteshwar Pandey.
Sawant also said that the BJP IT cell created thousands of fake Twitter, Facebook and YouTube accounts for propaganda.