Under CrPC rules, Mumbai police have sole jurisdiction over the case, it says; state government likely to submit this view in SC on Wednesday
Shruti Ganapatye (MUMBAI MIRROR; August 4, 2020)

The Maharashtra government will back a single investigation into the Sushant Singh Rajput case, conducted by the Mumbai police, after seeking the opinion of its law department. A source in the home department told Mirror, “The Mumbai police will pursue the case as per the law. There is no question of handing over papers pertaining to the case to the Bihar police.”

There have been two investigations into the actor’s death since July 25, when the Bihar police registered an FIR in Patna on a complaint by Rajput’s father K K Singh, accusing actress Rhea Chakraborty and five others of abetting his son’s suicide. The Bihar police began its probe without informing the Mumbai police and last week sent a team to the city for the investigation, sparking a controversy between the two states.

Following this, the Maharashtra government sought the opinion of its law and judiciary department, which said in a note to the home department that under the Criminal Procedure Code (CrPC) rules, an offence must be investigated by the police in whose jurisdiction it was committed. The state government is likely to submit this legal view to the Supreme Court on August 5, where it has filed a caveat in a case filed by actress Rhea Chakraborty seeking to transfer the FIR lodged against her in Patna to Mumbai.

The legal note, accessed by Mumbai Mirror, says, “As per the provisions of chapter XII of Criminal Procedure Code as well as the provisions of chapter XIII of the Criminal Procedure code, an offence is supposed to be investigated, inquired and tried by the police and the court within whose local jurisdiction the offence is committed. So, if a complaint is received by the Patna police about an offence committed in Mumbai, then Patna police could register an offense by zero number and send it to the appropriate police station (in the present case Mumbai Police) for investigation.”

In the Bihar police’s FIR, filed at Rajiv Nagar Police Station in Patna, Chakraborty, three of her family members and two others have been booked under sections 306 (abetting suicide), 341 (wrongful restraint), 342 (wrongful confinement), 380 (theft in dwelling house), 406 (criminal breach of trust), and 420 (cheating and dishonestly inducing delivery of property) of the Indian Penal Code.

Meanwhile, the tussle between the two states continues. On Sunday, the BMC placed a senior Bihar police official under quarantine for 14 days upon his arrival in Mumbai. Patna City superintendent of police Vinay Tiwari had come to the city to supervise the Bihar police’s probe but had his hand stamped and will remain under quarantine for two weeks at the State Reserve Police Force quarters in Goregaon. Bihar Director General of Police Gupteshwar Pandey alleged that Tiwari had been “forcibly quarantined”.

However, a BMC official told Mirror that this was not the case. The official said, “Being a domestic air traveller, (Tiwari) needed to be placed under home quarantine as per the state government’s guidelines. Accordingly, a (BMC) team approached him at the guesthouse on Sunday evening. They explained to him the procedure for domestic air travellers, including home quarantine, in the state government’s notification dated May 25. He has also been guided to apply to the competent authority (BMC) for exemption from the home quarantine period as per the state government’s notification.”

—With inputs from Linah Baliga