MUMBAI: The BJP on Sunday questioned as to why the Mumbai Police, which was earlier probing actor Sushant Singh Rajput’s death, ignored the drugs angle in the case and whether it was done deliberately to “safeguard the interests of powerful people”.
The party said the Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) government should take full responsibility for this “failure”, and accused it of allowing the alleged Bollywood-drugs nexus to blossom.
The allegations were made in a letter BJP spokesperson Ram Kadam wrote to Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray and Home Minister Anil Deshmukh.
In the letters, Kadam said the Narcotics Control Bureau (NCB) has initiated a massive crackdown to expose the Bollywood-drug mafia nexus.
“More than 20 persons have been arrested, whereas several prominent personalities have been summoned by the NCB. This drug link with Bollywood seems one of the significant aspects in the murder mystery of the late actor,” Kadam said.
He claimed that the actor’s family and close friends had highlighted this alleged drugs link before as well as after his death.
“The question is why this link was conveniently ignored by the Mumbai Police, which was clearly acting as per the instructions of the state government. Was this cover-up done to safeguard the interests of powerful people?” he asked.
Kadam claimed that the probe into the case was with the Mumbai Police for 65 days and the drug chats were available on Rhea Chakraborty’s mobile phone.
Rhea is facing a probe in the actor’s death case.
Kadam said that Bollywood personalities are idols of the youth and "rendering a blind eye to the dangerous nexus seems to have a detrimental effect on many youths and young actors like Sushant".
"The Maharashtra government should take full responsibility for the failure and allowing the Bollywood-drugs nexus to blossom,” Kadam alleged.
State Congress spokesperson Sachin Sawant, however, hit back at Kadam, saying it was “shameless” on the part of the BJP to say such things.
“Rajput’s death case and the NCB probe have no connection. In fact, the BJP’s drugs links should be probed. Devendra Fadnavis was chief minister for five years, why wasn’t the drug angle probed?” he asked.
“What is the connection of (film producer) Sandeep Ssingh with the BJP? These people enjoy Mumbai Police’s security, but at the same time don’t hesitate to malign the image of the force. People of Maharashtra will not forgive them,” Sawant said.
Rajput was found hanging in his Bandra apartment on June 14.
The Mumbai Police had earlier registered an Accidental Death Report (ADR) and launched an investigation. However, the CBI took over the probe into the high-profile case in August following the Supreme Court''s nod.
Rajput''s father K K Singh had on July 25 lodged a complaint with the Bihar police against his son''s rumoured girlfriend and actress Rhea Chakraborty and her family members accusing them of abetting his suicide.