Murder That Never Was

More than three-and-a-half months after the 24-year-old actor—said to be battling depression—was found hanging in his Mumbai apartment, the case is far from over, mired as it is in a tangle of drugs, politics and the media circus.

But the Bombay High Court’s observations will come as relief for Rhea, 28, who was living with the actor till a few days bef­ore he allegedly committed suicide. “She is not part of drug dealers. She has not forwarded the drugs allegedly procured by her to somebody else to earn monetary or other benefits,” the court said in its order. Two co-acc­used Samuel Miranda and Dipesh Sawant were also granted bail though Rhea’s brother Showik’s plea was rejected. Rhea was arr­ested by the Narcotics Control Bureau (NCB) in a drugs case linked to Rajput’s death. The NCB claims she was an “active member” of a drugs syndicate and procured drugs for Rajput, a Bihari actor who played the lead role in several Bollywood films since deb­uting with Kai Po Che in 2013.

The CBI is separately probing a case against Rhea, her brother Showik and others for allegedly abetting the actor’s suicide, while the Enforcement Directorate is looking into suspected money laundering from Rajput’s bank accounts.

“The hounding and witch hunt by three central agencies, the CBI, ED and NCB, of Rhea should come to an end,” her lawyer, Satish Maneshinde, said.

However, the AIIMS forensic team’s findings came as a shock to many, inc­luding Rajput’s family, which had all along claimed that he was killed. “Highly perturbed with AIIMS rep­ort. Going to req­uest the CBI director to constitute a fresh forensic team,” tweeted Rajput’s family lawyer Vikas Singh. “How could AIIMS team give a conclusive report in the abs­ence of the body, that too on such a shoddy post-mortem...wherein the time of death is also not mentioned,” he said.

In its medico-legal opinion to the CBI, the six-member AIIMS team led by ­forensic chief Dr Sudhir Gupta dismissed claims of “poisoning and strangling”, ­saying the panel did not find any trace of poison and drugs in the viscera. The panel said it was “a case of hanging and death by suicide”.

Maneshinde ­exp­ressed anguish over the stand of Rajput’s family, saying “it is very disturbing…as att­empts are being made to get a predetermined result in the case”.

Maneshinde found support from Abha Singh, a former civil servant and advocate, who said the murder theory was pushed by “certain media channels, in a desperate race for seeking TRPs and fulfilling hidden agendas”. She adds: “Rhea was booked in a petty case related to personal drug consumption by the NCB, which is otherwise supposed to handle cases of international drug cartels and trafficking. Extreme interpretations of law were made and she was booked as a drug trafficker.”

Activist-actor Sadaf Jafar, who came in support of Rhea, especially in light of the AIIMS panel findings, says the actress should be let off the charges and rabid news anchors should apologise for blaming her for Rajput’s death. “Bihar pol­ice and all those politicians who thought that after failing the people of Bihar, they could twist the circumstances to get brownie points should hang their heads in shame,” she adds.

But politics continue to haunt the case. The BJP has questioned as to why the Mumbai Police ignored the drugs angle in the case and whether it was done ­deliberately to “safeguard the interests of powerful people”. The party said the Maharashtra government should take full responsibility for this “failure”, and acc­used it of allowing the alleged Bollywood-drugs nexus to blossom.