Sushant Singh Rajput's death: Actor's family to challenge CBI closure report, calls it 'shoddy investigation'

The family members of late actor Sushant Singh Rajput have decided to challenge one of the closure reports filed by the CBI. According to Hindustan Times, which had accessed the original report pertaining to the allegations against Rhea, the CBI claimed that there existed no evidence to suggest that the allegations were true, and that Sushant had treated Rhea as “family”.

Sushant's family and legal team have termed the report an "eyewash," according to their lawyer, Varun Singh. “If CBI really wanted to come out with the truth, it would have submitted all the supporting case documents, including chats, technical records, statements of witnesses, medical records, etc, in the court along with the final (closure) report, which they have not done. We will file a protest petition against this closure report, which is based on a shoddy investigation,” he said in a statement.

The CBI had filed closure reports pertaining to two cases: one, in which the actor's father KK Singh had alleged financial fraud and mental harrassment on the part of Rhea Chakraborty and family members; two, in which Rhea filed a case against the actor's sisters, claiming that they had supplied him with psychotropic substances without prescription, suggesting the possibility that these could've led to his deteriorated mental state.

The HT report quotes an officer who said, “Investigation revealed that Sushant had committed suicide. None of the accused persons had lived/stayed with him between June 8, 2020, and June 14, 2020 (the day he was found hanging in his Bandra flat). Rhea and her brother Showik left the house on June 8 and thereafter didn’t visit the house. Sushant had spoken to Showik on June 10 through WhatsApp at 1441 hours, but had no conversations with Rhea between June 8 and June 14. Evidence had not come on record to show that Sushant had met with Rhea or any of her family members or had been in touch by any other means. Shruti Modi (Susant’s ex-manager) had stopped visiting Sushant’s house since she fractured her leg in February. Furthermore, Meetu Singh (Sushant’s sister) had stayed with him in his flat from June 8 to June 12. Therefore, no evidence of any immediate provocation/abetment by any of the accused persons has come on record, which may have led Sushant to commit suicide.”

The CBI report also says there was “no evidence has come on record suggesting that Sushant was illegally confined or restrained in any manner by any of the accused or any other person,” in response to the allegations of wrongful confinement and restraining of the actor by his relatives.

The allegations of theft and financial fraud were also discounted by the report, adding that “when Rhea, along with her brother, left Sushant’s house on June 8, she took away her Apple laptop and Apple wristwatch, which were gifted to her by Sushant. No evidence has emerged during the investigation about any property dishonestly taken out of the possession of Sushant without his knowledge by Rhea or any other accused person.”

It was also mentioned that Sushant's chartered accountant and lawyer had supervised his finances. However, advocate Varun Singh challenged it, saying: “Simply saying Sushant Singh’s account has not been used to take out funds is not enough. CBI should have provided the bank statement to back its claim. It’s a flimsy report, which won’t stand in the court of law”.

A Patna court has set December 20 as the date for hearing the closure report issue.

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