Sushant Singh Rajput death: SC dismisses CBI plea challenging Bombay HC order quashing LOC against Rhea Chakraborty, others

In a significant development in the actor Sushant Singh Rajput death case, the Supreme Court on Oct 25 dismissed the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) plea against a Bombay High Court decision to quash the look-out circulars (LOCs) issued against actor Rhea Chakraborty, her brother and her father, and pulled up the probe agency for filing the appeal.

A bench of Justices B R Gavai and K V Viswanathan criticized the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI), the Maharashtra government, and the Bureau of Immigration for questioning the Bombay High Court's ruling simply because the accused held high-profile status.

The bench noted CBI appeal was frivolous and asked the state counsel not to file such an unnecessary petition.
“This frivolous petition is motivated solely by the fact that one of the accused is a prominent figure. It will be dismissed with significant costs. Both individuals have strong ties to the community," the court said.

Pertinently, the LOCs had been issued by immigration authorities at the request of the CBI, which has been probing Rajput’s death on a complaint made by his family. Bombay High Court quashed the LOCs in February this year after finding the probe agency had failed to spell out its reasons for the issuance of these LOCs.'

Chakraborty was arrested by the Narcotics Control Bureau (NCB) under provisions of the Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances (NDPS) Act in September 2020 after actor Rajput’s death. She was granted bail by Bombay High Court a month later.

The high court on February 22 this year quashed the LOCs issued against Chakraborty, her brother Showik, and their parents — Indrajit and Sandhya. It held that the LOCs — issued against them in 2020 — could not be sent out on the mere registration of an FIR, while allowing the pleas of the Chakrabortys.

The court observed actor and her family members have cooperated with CBI in its investigation by appearing before the agency whenever summoned without attempting to evade it.

“A LOC is a coercive measure to make the person surrender and as such interferes with the person’s right of personal liberty and free movement and curtails the fundamental right of an individual to travel, guaranteed under Article 21 of the Constitution,” the high court had said recently.

The HC bench added the reason for issuing a LOC — the apprehension of the probe agency — needed to be spelled out.
Pertinently, in August 2020, the Enforcement Directorate (ED) opened an investigation into allegations of money laundering linked to Sushant's death. Rhea and her brother were questioned on August 7.

On August 19, 2020, the Supreme Court handed the investigation of the death over to the CBI, taking it away from the Mumbai police. Around the same time, the Narcotics Control Bureau (NCB) also began a parallel investigation into the allegations of drug trafficking and abuse linked to Sushant's death.