Sushant Singh Rajput death: DGP says Bihar cops competent to investigate

In the midst of a call from many NDA members for a CBI investigation to the death of actor Sushant Singh Rajput, on Saturday Bihar DGP Gupteshwar Pandey said the state police are sufficiently competent to deal with this. He said an IPS-level officer might be sent to Mumbai to lead the investigation if necessary.

Asked at a virtual press meeting if the Patna police team investigating the case in Mumbai had given any notice to Sushant ‘s friend Rhea Chakraborty to speak to her in connection with the investigation, Pandey said they could not yet locate Rhea.

He said, “Our team has met Ankita Lokhande (actor and Sushant’s former girlfriend), Sushant’s sister Neetu, his cook, some of the actor’s friends and colleagues. The team had also gone to a bank to seek transaction details,” he said. Stating the team is getting support from Mumbai Police, Gupta said they are seeking “medico-legal evidence such as postmortem and forensic reports, and statements of people…”

Sushant’s father, K K Singh, had registered an FIR in Patna on July 25, holding Rhea and five others, including her relatives, responsible for the actor’s death by suicide. He accused them of siphoning off money from the Sushant Singh Rajput account, among other charges.

Meanwhile, Bihar Deputy CM and BJP leader Sushil Kumar Modi Saturday tweeted (translated from Hindi), “[Maharashtra CM] Uddhav Thackeray is under pressure from the Congress-backed Bollywood mafia and is thus trying to save all those responsible in the case. How will Congress face the people of Bihar?”

Maharashtra minister and Shiv Sena leader Anil Parab said Mumbai Police is capable of handling the case, PTI reported. While Modi and Bihar minister Jai Kumar Singh of JD(U) has backed a CBI probe, on Saturday, Sanjay Kumar Jha, state minister and a confidante of CM Nitish Kumar, told PTI, “The CM will definitely act if demand for a CBI inquiry comes from the family.”