Sushant Singh Rajput death: Rhea Chakraborty opposes sisters’ petition to quash FIR

Actor Rhea Chakraborty (28) has opposed the petition filed by Priyanka Singh and Meetu Singh, sisters of late actor Sushant Singh Rajput (34), for quashing the first information report (FIR) registered against them by Bandra police.

In an affidavit in reply to the petition in the Bombay high court (HC), the actor has reiterated her allegations that Priyanka and Dr. Tarun Kumar, a cardiologist associated with Dr. Ram Manohar Lohia (RML) Hospital in Delhi, had illegally prescribed medicines containing psychotropic substances, for the late actor without consultation.

She has asserted that the FIR registered at Bandra police station at her behest, was required to be investigated thoroughly, as Rajput has ended his life barely within a week of receiving these prescriptions.

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According to her affidavit, Rajput had on June 8 received WhatsApp messages from Priyanka containing prescriptions, prescribing Nexito (5 milligrams) , Librium (10 mg) and Lonazep MD (0.5 mg), and all the three medications contain psychotropic substances such as chlordiazepoxide and clonazepam, as per the Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances (NDPS) Act, 1985.

Chakraborty has asserted that since the allegations are of serious nature, the investigation agency must be afforded sufficient opportunity to investigate the case.

The HC bench, comprising Justices SS Shinde and MS Karnikhas, posted the petition filed by Priyanka and Meetu Singh for further hearing on November 4.

In the petition filed through advocate Madhav Thorat, Rajput’s sisters have claimed that the medicines are not banned and the guidelines issued by the Medical Council of India (MCI) on April 11, for telemedicine “allows the medicine to be prescribed to a patient even at the first consultation.”

“A bare perusal of the complaint along with the FIR shows that the statements made there do not make out any cognisable offence,” the petition stated. The lodging of the complaint by Chakraborty was nothing but a feeble attempt on her part to scuttle the investigations against her and blame Rajput’s family members for his suicide, as she was on the verge of being arrested by the Narcotics Control Bureau (NCB),” it further stated.

No criminality could be attributed to the petitioners especially when the complaint was solely based on medicines prescribed by a doctor, it added.

In support of their contention, they relied on a 2005 Supreme Court (SC) judgement in Jacob Matthew’s case, in which the apex court had held that no offence against a medical practitioner can be investigated without first obtaining the opinion of experts in the medical field.

The petition also highlighted that there was an inordinate delay of 90 days in lodging the police complaint. The medicines were prescribed on June 8 -- the day Rajput had asked Chakraborty to leave his house with her bag and baggage -- but the complaint was filed on September 7.

Rajput had died by suicide at his Bandra apartment on June 14.