Sushant Singh Rajput case: CBI seeks transfer of hearing on closure report

A court here on Tuesday permitted the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) to seek transfer of the hearing in the closure report submitted by the agency in actor Sushant Singh Rajput death case to a designated court.

The central probe agency had last month filed its closure report in the death case before the Bandra metropolitan magistrate's court. The actor was found hanging in his apartment in Mumbai's Bandra area on June 14, 2020 at the age of 34. In the conclusive medico-legal opinion to the CBI, forensic specialists at the All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) had dismissed the claims of "poisoning and strangling" made in the case, the CBI had said in its report. On Tuesday, the agency informed magistrate K C Rajput that it would move an application before the chief judicial magistrate to transfer hearing in the case to the Esplanade magistrate's court, which is designated to hear CBI cases. Magistrate Rajput permitted the same and said the agency is directed to approach the appropriate court to seek the transfer of the case. The central agency had taken over the probe from the Bihar police, which had registered an abetment of suicide case on a complaint filed in Patna by the actor's his father K K Singh.

In his complaint to the Bihar police, his father had alleged that Rajput's rumoured girlfriend Rhea Chakraborty and her family members misappropriated his son's money, a charge denied by her in television interviews. The CBI had recorded the statements of Rhea Chakraborty and others in his close circle, and collected the actor's medical records. Chakraborty had also filed a complaint against Rajput's sister Priyanka and one doctor alleging that they were responsible for the actor's death. The CBI closure report absolved all the persons named in the two FIRs.