After it emerged that Salian's phone was active after her death, city police deny any foul play
Faizan Khan, Samiullah Khan (MID-DAY; August 25, 2020)

The mobile bill of Sushant Singh Rajput's former manager Disha Salian has revealed that her phone was used after the actor's death on June 15 and 17. A call was received on it and the Internet was used which subsequently raised questions of links to the actor's death. However, senior Mumbai police officers said that Malvani police had activated the phone during their investigation and maintained that there is no foul play involved.

The CBI team investigating Sushant's death visited Waterstones Hotel in Marol, where the actor stayed for two months last year to hunt for evidence and CCTV footage.

The Special Investigation Team (SIT) also continued to grill key witnesses in the case for the fourth consecutive day. Siddharth Pithani, Neeraj Singh, Deepesh Sawant and another cook, Keshav Bachner, who was present on June 14, the day Sushant allegedly committed suicide, were questioned on Monday. Sources said Bachner had been out of the city and the SIT may visit the flat in Bandra again with the four witnesses.

The team at Waterstones Hotel spent several hours questioning people connected to the case. Rhea Chakraborty had taken Sushant to the resort and introduced him to self-proclaimed spiritual healer Mohan Joshi. Earlier, Joshi had issued a video statement saying, "I have been healing people spiritually for 38 years. In Sushant's case, I was contacted by Rhea for spiritual healing and I visited them once at the club where I prayed for him. The next day I was told that he was doing very well and had smiled after many days, so I was invited for lunch. This is how I met them twice and yes, I was told that he suffering from depression."

Spiritual Healer May Be Quizzed
Joshi is likely to be questioned by CBI soon. The priority for the agency is to collect evidence and understand what exactly happened inside the club as Sushant's family, in their complaint, alleged that he had disconnected from the world while at the resort and that they suspect black magic to be involved.

With regard to the activation of Salian's phone, a senior IPS officer told mid-day, "Her phone was activated by the police for investigation in the presence of Salian's fiancé, Rohan Roy and other senior officers of Malvani police. It was only done for the purpose of investigation and there is no conspiracy to it." The phone was activated by police to probe for links between Salian's and Sushant's deaths.

There were reports that Rhea Chakraborty and her family will be summoned by the CBI. However, Rhea's lawyer Satish Maneshinde issued a statement saying, "Rhea & Fly have not received any summons from CBI so far to attend. No sooner she receives it, she & fly will attend as they did before Mumbai Police and ED as law abiding citizens (sic)."
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Abhishek Sharan (MUMBAI MIRROR; August 25, 2020)

The CBI team investigating the death of Sushant Singh Rajput on Monday collected details from an Andheri hotel where the late actor allegedly stayed for a few weeks. The agency is also likely to examine Rajput’s girlfriend Rhea Chakraborty over the allegations made against her by the late actor’s family.

The agency is verifying allegations levelled by Rajput’s father, K K Singh, that his son stayed at the hotel at a time when Chakraborty and other accused were attempting to take control of his life and finances. Singh, on whose complaint the Bihar police had registered a first information report on July 25 against six people on charges related to abetment to suicide and criminal conspiracy, had alleged that his son had stayed at the hotel after leaving his rental flat on the ground that it was “haunted”, sources said.

Singh alleged that his son was brainwashed into believing that the “haunted” house was having a negative effect on him, and that he was asked to visit a counsellor. The agency is seeking to establish as to when exactly Rajput stayed there, if at all, and if he had taken counselling from a spiritual healer, the sources said. An agency team interviewed hotel staff as part of the probe.

The team also interviewed Rajput’s friend and former staffers at the DRDO guesthouse to reconstruct the incidents leading to the actor’s death at his residence in Bandra, the sources said.

The agency has been seeking details from staffers Neeraj Singh, Deepesh Sawant and Rajat Mewati and his friend Siddharth Pithani to understand what transpired at Rajput’s flat on June 14, when his body was found hanging, and the day before, on June 13. Singh, Sawant and Pithani were among the four that were there at Rajput’s flat on the day of the incident.

The agency is also seeking to ascertain if Rajput’s medical papers are all intact, the sources said. The CBI is verifying if the actor had stopped taking his medicines in March, as per claims. It is also examining all aspects related to the actor’s autopsy at a government-run hospital on June 14, and has met the personnel associated with the exercise. The autopsy report allegedly did not cite the probable time of the death and the last meal based on the contents of the stomach, the sources said.

The three staffers were asked about the incidents of June 8, when Rajput’s girlfriend, Rhea Chakraborty, a case accused, left the flat. According to Rajput’s father’s complaint to the Bihar police on July 25, Rajput wanted to move to Coorg to do organic farming, but Chakraborty was against the idea.

Chakraborty has denied all allegations and clarified that it was Rajput who had requested her to go to her parents’ for some time, as his sister was expected to come on June 8.