‘No BJP leader linked Aaditya to actor’s death’

CBI investigation throwing up surprising revelations, says Fadnavis

Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) legislator and Leader of Opposition in the Assembly Devendra Fadnavis on Friday said no BJP leader had “directly or indirectly” taken State Minister Aaditya Thackeray’s name in connection with the Sushant Singh Rajput case.

Speaking to reporters after the inauguration of a COVID-19 facility at Baner, the former chief minister said investigations into the Bollywood actor’s death had thrown up a number of surprising revelations. Mr. Fadnavis wondered why these disclosures had not come to the fore prior to the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) taking over the probe.

“The CBI took over the investigation 40 days after the unfortunate incident. What if evidence was tampered with during this period? There are media reports that hard-disks have been destroyed. So, the question arises as to whether the Mumbai Police was under any political pressure all this while,” the BJP leader said.

While Mr. Fadnavis expressed confidence that the central agency would ultimately get to the bottom of the case, he opined that if only the agency had been involved right from the start, crucial evidence might have been prevented from being totally destroyed.

It was Shiv Sena MP Sanjay Raut who had recently alleged a conspiracy to link Shiv Sena’s Mr. Aaditya, the son of Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray, with the actor’s death. Without actually naming the BJP, Mr. Raut had said the Opposition could not face up to the fact that the MVA government was in power in Maharashtra. Mr. Aaditya had strongly denied any link with the case while stating that his family was being targeted for no reason.

Earlier, Congress leader and spokesperson Sachin Sawant had tweeted a photo of Mr. Fadnavis with film producer Sandip Singh, whose name has figured in the investigation surrounding the actor’s murky death. In the picture, Mr. Fadnavis is seen with actor Vivek Oberoi at the launch of a poster on the biopic on Prime Minister Narendra Modi. The film was produced by Mr. Singh. Tweeting this picture, Mr. Sawant sought a probe into the ‘BJP angle’ in the case.

Responding to Mr. Sawant’s demand, Mr. Fadnavis said: “Now that Sachin Sawant’s party is part of the Shiv Sena-NCP-Congress MVA government, why weren’t these suspects [read Sandip Singh] questioned by the Mumbai police? This same person [Mr. Singh] was also the director or producer of a film on late Shiv Sena supremo Balasaheb Thackeray. This only proves that Sachin Sawant has not done his homework (sic).”