Earlier this month, the high court had granted bail to Rhea, an accused in the Sushant Singh Rajput death case, nearly a month after her arrest in the NCB drug case.
Actor Rhea Chakraborty Tuesday sought from the Bombay High Court to decline the plea filed by Sushant Singh Rajput’s sisters Priyanka and Meetu seeking to quash First Information Report (FIR) lodged against them following Rhea’s complaint for forging and procuring fake medical prescription for their brother.
Earlier this month, the high court had granted bail to Rhea, an accused in the Sushant Singh Rajput death case, nearly a month after her arrest in the Narcotics Control Bureau (NCB) drug case.
A division bench of Justice S S Shinde and Justice M S Karnik Tuesday was hearing the plea filed by deceased actor’s sisters through video-conference through advocate Madhav Thorat.
Rhea, facing probe by central agencies in connection with the Rajput death case, on September 7 filed a police complaint against the late actor’s sister Priyanka Singh and a doctor from Ram Manohar Lohia Hospital in Delhi for allegedly getting Sushant psychiatric drugs without consultation and by using a forged prescription.
Rhea in her complaint asked the Bandra police to investigate if these medications, which fall under the ambit of the Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances (NDPS) Act, resulted in the deterioration of Sushant’s mental health or his death on June 14. The Bandra police also filed a case against Dr. Tarun Kumar of the Ram Manohar Lohia Hospital in Delhi, who signed the medical prescription.
In their plea before the High Court, Rajput’s sisters said that Rhea, as per contents of FIR, had made “contradictory statements” about the actor’s death. The sisters, pending hearing, also sought interim relief to stay proceedings arising out of FIR and restrain the prosecution from taking any coercive action against them.
They said Rhea first claimed in her tweet on July 16 that she did not know what drove Sushant to die by suicide and, subsequently, told the Supreme Court that she did not suspect anyone, but later change her statements and accused them of negligence. The sisters also said that lodging of FIR is contrary to Supreme Court directions given that the suicide case is being investigated by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI).
Rajput’s sisters also said that no criminality could be attributed to them since the complaint was solely based on medicines prescribed by a doctor, and therefore liable to be struck down in view of past Supreme Court judgement.
On Tuesday, Rhea’s advocate Satish Maneshinde submitted her affidavit in response to the plea and stated that since the case against Rajput’s sisters is at a ‘nascent’ stage, the investigation agency was required to be given time. She further said that ‘forged’ and ‘fabricated’ medical prescription was used to help Rajput procure medicines banned under NDPS Act.
The affidavit stated, “Rajput died merely five days after he obtained the said prescription, wherein he was unlawfully prescribed psychotropic substances at the behest of his sister (Priyanka) and Dr Tarun Kumar.”
On June 8, Rhea had only been privy to the medicines prescribed by Priyanka and had warned Sushant against taking such medicines. It was only in September that Rhea became aware of the fact that rather than heeding her advice, Priyanka had fraudulently obtained fabricated prescription from co-accused (Dr. Tarun Kumar).
Rhea in her affidavit also said Rajput had a “tumultuous relation” with his family and was suffering mental problems and was undergoing medical treatment for the same.
Rhea said it was needed to be investigated whether Rajput consumed medicines prescribed, which may have contributed to his death and/or further deteriorated his mental health and therefore plea by Rajput’s sisters be dismissed with heavy costs.
The court directed CBI and Mumbai Police to file their affidavits in reply to the plea and posted the matter for further hearing on November 4.
© The Indian Express (P) Ltd
