The Bombay High Court on Thursday reserved its order on a plea filed by sisters of late actor Sushant Singh Rajput to quash the FIR filed against them by Rhea Chakraborty alleging abetment of his suicide.
A Division Bench of Justices S.S. Shinde and M.S. Karnik was hearing a plea filed by Meetu and Priyanka Singh seeking to quash the FIR filed on September 7 by the Bandra police station.
They have been booked under Sections 420 (cheating and dishonestly inducing delivery of property), 464 (making a false document, 465 (punishment for forgery), 468 (forgery for purpose of cheating), 474 (having possession of document) and 306 (abetment of suicide) of the Indian Penal Code along with provisions of the Narcotics Drugs and Psychotropic Substances Act.
Senior advocate Devadutt Kamat, appearing for Maharashtra, pointed to WhatsApp messages and said they revealed that Ms. Priyanka had prescribed medicines for the actor without online consultation. Hence it was a matter of investigation.
Advocate Satish Maneshinde, appearing for Ms. Chakraborty, contended that she knew of Rajput taking medicines and narcotic substances. He said after Ms. Chakraborty got to know that the medicines were prescribed by a doctor who the actor never consulted, she filed the complaint.
Senior advocate Vikas Singh, representing the sisters, argued there was no evidence against them and said the medicines referred to by Ms. Chakraborty could have been referred to by doctors through telemedicine as per the Indian Council of Medical Research guidelines.
CBI’s counsel Additional Solicitor General Anil Singh read the FIR and said as per the direction of the Supreme Court, the investigation into the FIR should have been transferred to the CBI by the Maharashtra government.
The court then asked if the sisters had been arrested. Mr. Singh replied that there had not been any investigation in the matter so far.
The Bench then observed: “From his face, one can make out that he was innocent and sober and a very good human being. Even in MS Dhoni . Everybody likes him, especially in that film” and reserved the order.
