In a significant ruling, the Supreme Court on Friday rejected a petition by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) challenging the Bombay High Court’s decision to quash look-out circulars (LOCs) against actress Rhea Chakraborty and her family in connection with the death of actor Sushant Singh Rajput.
The bench, comprising Justice BR Gavai and Justice KV Viswanathan, termed the CBI’s petition as “frivolous” and critiqued it for being motivated by the high-profile nature of the case. “You are filing such a frivolous petition, only because one of the accused is a high-profile person… It will be with exemplary cost. Both persons have deep roots in society,” Justice Gavai remarked during the proceedings.
The dismissed LOCs were initially issued in 2020 against Rhea, her brother Showik, and her father Lt Col Indrajit Chakraborty (retd). These circulars, which were intended to prevent them from traveling abroad, had been challenged by the Chakraborty family, leading to the high court’s cancellation of the orders earlier this year.
In February, Justices Revati Mohite Dere and Manjusha Deshpande of the Bombay High Court allowed the petitions filed by the Chakraborty family, questioning the issuance of the LOCs based solely on the existence of an FIR against them. The court underscored the lack of substantial evidence indicating that the accused were attempting to evade legal proceedings or arrest.
The controversy over the jurisdiction of the case also came under the spotlight, with advocates for Rhea arguing that since both parties resided in Mumbai and the investigations were conducted there, the jurisdiction rightly belonged to Mumbai, despite the FIR initially being filed in Patna.
