BY QUAID NAJMI AND ANAND SINGH
The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) on Friday kickstarted the probe into the death of Bollywood actor Sushant Singh Rajput here as it collected documents from the Mumbai Police and recorded the statements of several people. The federal probe agency also contacted the All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) to seek medico-legal opinion on the autopsy report of the late actor.
Over two months after Sushant was found dead at his Bandra home, the CBI team has expedited the investigation after the Supreme Court’s nod for a federal agency probe on Wednesday.
The CBI team, which is expected to camp in Mumbai for 10 days, has its plans ready as it formed several teams, each with its task outlined.
Led by SIT official Nupur Prasad, the central agency team arrived at the office of the Bandra DCP earlier and met the Mumbai Police officers, who were handling the investigation. According to official sources, the CBI sleuths were given a detailed briefing on the current case status by the Mumbai Police.
The team of CBI officials from Delhi along with the forensic team took over the case documents, all the evidence collected so far and statements recorded till date, among other details, from the Mumbai Police in the morning.
The agency has formed four or five small teams — one to liaise with police, another to take up the crime spot probe, while others will engage in field probes, witnesses, and interrogation.
Sources said that Sushant’s death scene will be recreated at his Bandra flat in a day or so and the first five persons who had reached the spot after the actor’s death will be questioned.
The agency will also speak to the doctors who conducted Sushant’s autopsy. If required, the team will also speak to the Mumbai Police DCP, with whom the family of Sushant shared a WhatsApp message in February this year citing alleged threats to Sushant’s life.
Meanwhile, Sudhir Gupta, head of forensic science department at AIIMS Delhi, told IANS, “The CBI has contacted us and they wanted a competent medical board to examine the postmortem report, the crime scene and give an opinion along with the request to visit Mumbai to cross verify the facts.”
When asked when the team will visit Mumbai, he said, “The team of AIIMS will soon decide when to visit Mumbai and examine the flat where the actor was found dead.”
An agency source in Mumbai further said that the CBI will ask for the call detail records of Sushant, his girlfriend Rhea Chakraborty and others. The CBI and CFSL teams have been exempted from the mandatory quarantine by the BMC.
Earlier on Friday, the federal agency recorded the statement of Sushant’s cook Neeraj and personal staff Dipesh Swant and house manager Samuel Miranda. In all probability, it will also question Rhea Chakraborty’s relatives. The sources also said that in the coming days, the agency will also call Rhea and other people named in the FIR for questioning.
The CBI also got the seven-page detailed autopsy report of Sushant from the Mumbai Police. According to the autopsy report, there were no external injury marks on Sushant’s body and no marks on the back of his neck. The CBI team is currently staying at the IAF Guest House in Santacruz area.
On August 6, after a recommendation by the Bihar government, the CBI had taken over the probe into the death of the 34-year-old actor on the orders of the Central government following an FIR lodged by the deceased’s father at Patna’s Rajiv Nagar police station.
The case was registered against Rhea Chakraborty, her father Indrajit, mother Sandhya, brother Showik, Sushant’s ex-manager Shruti Modi and flatmate Samuel Miranda and unknown persons on the basis of Sushant’s father K.K. Singh’s complaint that was filed on July 25.
Meanwhile, the Enforcement Directorate (ED), which is probing a money laundering case involving the death of the actor, on Friday recorded the statement of his sister Priyanka Singh in Delhi.
(Quaid Najmi can be contacted at q.najmi@ians.in and Anand Singh can be contacted at anand.s@ians.in)
