NEW DELHI: The Central Bureau of Investigation on Wednesday said its probe into the death of actor Sushant Singh Rajput is going on and all aspects of the case are being thoroughly probed. The statement comes after BJP MP Subramanian Swamy wrote to Prime Minister Narendra Modi regarding the probe. Maharashtra home minister Anil Deshmukh too recently raised questions over CBI’s long probe into the case.
The CBI is also using advanced mobile forensic equipment for analysis of dump data of the relevant cell tower locations related to the case, it said.
In a detailed reply to Swamy, Superintendent of Police, CBI, Nupur Prasad, in a letter dated 30 December, said: “The CBI is conducting investigation in a thorough and professional manner using latest scientific techniques. During investigation, all aspects are being looked at and no aspect has been ruled out as of date.”
Giving the details of the investigation so far, the agency said all places of concern like Aligarh, Faridabad, Hyderabad, Mumbai, Manesar (Gurgaon) and Patna have been visited by CBI teams.
The place of the incident — Sushant Singh’s body was found in his flat — has been visited by the investigators on numerous occasions ‘for better understanding of the circumstances related to the incident, CBI said.
The CBI responded to Swamy, after he wrote to Prime Minister Narendra Modi in connection with the CBI probe in the death of the Bollywood actor, who was found dead at his Mumbai’s Bandra apartment on 14 June.
In her reply, Prasad told Swamy that the CBI team visited Mumbai on 20 August, a day after the Supreme Court gave a nod for the federal agency probe. “The investigating team took over the case papers of Patna Police FIR and also collected the case papers from Mumbai Police,” she said, adding that the team also visited all places of concern like Aligarh, Faridabad, Hyderabad, Mumbai, Gurugram’s Manesar and Patna.
“The investigating team and senior officers also visited the place of incident on numerous occasions for better understanding of the circumstances related to the incident. The experts of the Central Forensic Science Laboratory (CFSL), Delhi, which is considered to be the best in their field, also visited and examined the place of incident,” she said, adding that the experts also carried out a “simulation exercise”.
Forensic medicine experts also visited the place of incident, and the mortuary of Cooper Hospital during night and also discussed the case with autopsy surgeons to understand the procedure of post-mortem adopted by them, she said.
The CBI officer further said that during investigation, all the concerned witnesses have been examined to understand the circumstances, apprehensions raised by the complainant and his family members and other independent sources. “Intensive and thorough investigation has been carried out in this regard,” she said.
After registering the case the CBI has questioned Rhea, her brother, Shruti Modi, her father Indrajit, Miranda, his flatmate Siddharth Pithani and several others. The CBI has also recorded the statements of the family members of Sushant, including his father, and sisters Rani Singh, and Mitu Singh.
“The CBI is also carrying out advanced mobile forensic equipment including latest softwares for extraction and analysis of relevant data available in the digital devices and also for analysis of dump data of the relevant cell tower locations related to the case,” she said.
The CBI had registered a case on 6 August this year after a notification from the Centre on the recommendations of Bihar government. The case was based on the complaint of Sushant’s father K. K. Singh to Bihar Police dated 25 July.
The CBI has named Sushant’s former girlfriend Rhea Chakraborty, her father Indrajit Chakraborty, mother Sandhya Chakraborty, brother Showik Chakraborty, Sushant’s former house manager Samuel Miranda, his former manager Shruti Modi and others in the case.
Besides the CBI, the Enforcement Directorate (ED) and the Narcotics Control Bureau (NCB) also registered separate cases of money laundering and drug-related cases, respectively. The NCB arrested Showik on 4 September and Rhea on 7 September. Rhea was granted bail on 4 October, while her brother was granted bail almost three months after his arrest.
