Sushant Singh Rajput's death case: Bihar IPS officer released from quarantine in Mumbai

Amid a war-of-words and tussle between Maharashtra and Bihar vis-à-vis investigations into the death of actor Sushant Singh Rajput, Mumbai’s civic body, the BrihanMumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC), decided to release Patna-based IPS officer Vinay Tiwari from quarantine.

On Sunday, when Tiwari, a superintendent of police of Central Patna, landed in Mumbai, to head the four-member probe team from Bihar, he was put to “home quarantine” at the SRPF guesthouse at Goregaon here.

On his arrival in Mumbai, he was asked to remain in quarantine till August 15 and was stamped as quarantined by the BMC.

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Meanwhile, the four-member team that arrived last month, investigated the case for 11 days and returned on Thursday to their home state.

Hours after the CBI formally registered an FIR in the Sushant Singh Rajput death case, the Maharashtra government seemed to have softened its stand and decided to release the officer from home quarantine.

BMC’s additional municipal commissioner P Velrasu, in a letter addressed to Bihar’s inspector general of police Jitendra Kumar, said that it has been decided to exempt the officer from home quarantine.

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Velrasu, in the letter on Thursday night, said: “….Considering that it is the only fifth day of his arrival, and since the request to exempt from home isolation to go back to Patna has come from Patna police, and considering the provision in the SOP to exempt passengers on a short-duration visit, it is hereby decided to exempt Vinay Tiwari from home quarantine subject to fulfilling the conditions.”

The letter states that Tiwari shall leave Maharashtra before the seventh day of the start of quarantine, that is August 8, and he would have to submit return ticket details.

Bihar’s director general of police Gupteshwar Pandey expressed happiness over the release of the officer. “After the observations of the Supreme Court, the Bihar police headquarters had again written to the BMC to release IPS officer Vijay Tiwari from quarantine. He has been released...I would like to thank the BMC,” Pandey tweeted.

The issue snowballed into a major issue between the JD(U)-BJP government in Bihar led by Nitish Kumar and the Uddhav Thackeray-led Maha Vikas Aghadi governments.

“It is surprising and unfortunate to note that a visiting senior officer before proceeding to Mumbai has not acquainted himself with the (Covid-19) quarantine guidelines issued by the Maharashtra government to arrest the spread of the pandemic in the state. It may be noted that the guidelines are available in the public domain,” Velrasu said in the letter.