Sushant and his live-in girl friend Rhea Chakraborty. (Pictures courtesy Pinkvilla and Facebook)
INDIAN STAR’S DEATH DRAWS PARALLEL WITH POPULAR SRI LANKAN ACTOR’S SUICIDE IN 2017
Was it suicide or murder? This seems to be the question the fans of Bollywood star Sushant Singh Rajput ask since the actor’s body was found hanging in his apartment on June 14.
The news of MS Dhoni: Untold Story star’s untimely death has sent shockwaves among his fans and the Hindi film industry. No suicide note was found and it is said that he was suffering from depression for about six months before his death.
Now the mystery surrounding the actor’s death has turned into something like a who done it masala film.
After being initially called a suicide, the death is now seen as a possible murder after his father, K.K. Singh, filed an FIR (First Information Report). He names six people, including Sushant’s live-in partner, actress Rhea Chakraborty, her brother, family members, accusing the actress of cheating his son financially, harassing him mentally and driving him to suicide.
The Indian Penal Code makes abetment of suicide a punishable offence.
Many of Sushant’s friends and relatives say he was a man who was in love with life setting aside a lot to do in the future. A former girlfriend, actress Ankita Lokhande, claimed in a TV interview that Sushant couldn’t have taken his own life because he believed suicide to be a “terrible thing”.
Sushant’s sister Shweta Singh Kirti has been sharing several posts on social media related to her late brother, saying that he had no intention of committing suicide. She shared a list of things the actor was planning to do after June 29.
“My brother’s White Board showed his plans to start his workout and transcendental meditation from June 29 daily. It also had a to-do-list that included things like reading books, watching movies, learning guitar, waking up early, doing meditation, working out and others,” she said.
Sushant loved astronomy and astrophysics and bought a high-powered telescope to observe the rings of Saturn. In preparation for his role as an astronaut in Chanda Mama Door Ke, he was to train at NASA. He intended to go back and complete the instructor training certificate, aspiring to be chosen for the 2024 Artemis Program.
Television channels went to town with headlines to suit the new twists in the case with all accusations against Rhea, questioning how Rs 15 crore disappeared from his bank account and how she and ‘her family blackmailed the actor in a well laid out conspiracy’.
Protest marches took place on the streets with placards reading “Justice for Sushant”. Reports say at least three fans have since committed suicide, including a 30-year-old television actor.
On July 31, a video by Rhea went viral, where she was seen addressing the allegations against her over the death of Sushant.
In the clip, she said: “I have an immense faith in God and the judiciary. I believe that I will get justice. Even though a lot of horrible things have been said about me in the electronic media, I will refrain from commenting on my lawyer’s advice as the matter is sub judice.”
Shweta has written a note addressed to Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Twitter saying that “We are from a very simple family. My brother had no Godfather when he was in Bollywood, nor do we have anyone right now. My request is to immediately look into this case and make sure that everything is handled in a sanitized way, and no evidence is tampered with.”
This is a veiled reference to wide-spread nepotism in Bollywood. The industry is largely run by a few clans, promoting their kin at the cost of talented outsiders who are robbed of opportunities, and the audience, which is robbed of quality content. Sushant was described as a victim of the film industry’s nepotism.
That’s not all. Two police jurisdictions – Bihar, actor’s home state and Mumbai where the death took place – are clashing on authority over the probe. The issue has become politically divisive, with many politicians too expressing different views adding to the reigning confusion.
Actor Kangana Ranaut feuds with Bollywood stars are well known. In a series of tweets through the digital team that runs a social media account in her name, Kangana used the occasion to revive old spats with Bollywood’s privileged star kids.
“Kangana is saying if she is found hanging in her house, please know she did not commit suicide,” a tweet by her digital team read, a day before the Queen star was quoted as saying that shots were fired outside her home in Manali in a bid to intimidate her.
Rhea has requested Union Home Minister Amit Shah for a probe by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI). She has slammed the allegations by Sushant’s family as “entirely false and concocted with ulterior motive” and has petitioned the Supreme Court to transfer the investigation being carried out by the police from Patna to Mumbai. She has also complained of receiving murder and rape threats online.
On August 2, Sushant’s therapist Susan Walker came out in defence of Rhea, saying, “she didn’t kill him”. Walker said she was dismayed with media’s irresponsible coverage on mental health, adding that Sushant suffered from bipolar disorder and that Rhea “gave him courage to seek help”.
A Patna Police team was recently in Mumbai for its investigation into the case after the late actor’s family filed the FIR.
Maharashtra Home Minister Anil Deshmukh, on August 2, condemned for the second time the demand for a CBI investigation into the death. He shared on social media that even though the Patna Police has filed an FIR into Sushant’s death and is investigating the case, it will be the onus of Mumbai Police to carry out investigation as per jurisdictional norms.
As tensions continue to intensify between Mumbai and Bihar Police forces over probing the death, BJP MP Subramanian Swamy has said that the Narendra Modi-led Centre should seek a report from the Maharashtra Governor on the clash so that justice can be delivered to the late actor. Taking to Twitter, Swamy said the clash might harm the cause in the Sushant death case.
Meanwhile, Mumbai police said on August 3 that the late actor had Googled several words related to death and mental disorder towards the end. Sushant searched for words like “painless death”, “schizophrenia” and “bipolar disorder” on Google, Mumbai Police said.
An official also told The Indian Express that Sushant had searched three items repeatedly on Google in the week preceding his death: his own name in news reports, the name of his former manager Disha Salian who had committed suicide the previous week, and information about mental illness. “We found that Sushant knew there was talk linking him to Salian’s death, and he was worried this speculation might reach the media. That is why he may have been searching online. These issues seem to have exacerbated his condition. He had Googled his own name a few hours before the suicide,” Mumbai police said.
His former manager Salian passed away on June 9. It is reported that she died by suicide after jumping off from the 12th floor of a building.
According to Wikipedia, the police revealed that Sushant had initially tried to hang himself with the belt of a bathrobe, but it could not sustain his weight. Following this, he used a green kurta. His clothes were strewn over the floor of his bedroom; the police concluded that they had fallen out when he had pulled the kurta from his cupboard. Due to a discrepancy between his height and the distance between his bed and the ceiling fan, the police concluded that he had hanged himself in an inclined position. No sign of struggle was found.
This report draws a parallel between a Sri Lanka actor, Dasun Nishan de Silva, who committed suicide over a love affair on February 25 in 2017.
He videotaped his suicide. In the failed first attempt he had fallen down. According to the footage, he had been thinking for about five minutes after he fell down to the ground, climbed on to a teapoy and was successful in hanging himself the second time. A note written by him was found in the room said he had been undergoing unbearable heartaches in the recent past and no one was responsible for his death, and that it was his own decision.
Dasun wrote a cryptic Facebook post one month before his death. The English translation of the post said, “With my eyes closed and my mind toughened by this tragedy, may my sacrificed life be released into the deep end of the waters. RIP.” Another post on August 24 said “Bad decisions taken in the past can destroy the present”.
The Patna-born Sushant became an instant hit with his good looks and boyish charm when he was noticed in the famous soap on Zee TV’s Pavitra Rishta back in 2009. He started the acting career in 2008 with television serials and made his Bollywood debut in the buddy drama Kai Po Che! in 2013 for which he received a Filmfare nomination for Best Male Debut. The same year, he was also seen in the romantic comedy Shuddh Desi Romance 2013, which was followed by the action thriller Detective Byomkesh Bakshy! in 2015.
According to The Hindustan Times the Enforcement Directorate on August 5 issued summons to Rhea asking her to appear before the agency on Friday (August 7) at 11 am. She is said to have gone out of public view ever since she posted the video claiming innocence. The ED is probing the financial misconduct aspect of the investigation.
When he died at the age of 34, the actor had a net worth of around $8 million. According to 2020 figures, Sushant was the 27th richest actor in Bollywood. A philanthropist at heart, he donated 1 crore rupees when the state of Kerala was devastated by floods in 2018 and also gave 1.25 crore rupees to flood relief fund in Nagaland.
This year, the actor started a non-profit organization called Front India For World Foundation to eradicate hunger, poverty and malnutrition, and promote health care, including preventive health care and sanitation. He was also actively involved in many other social causes, including Sushant4Education and was promoting the Women Entrepreneurship Programme (WEP).
In 2017, he funded two students’ trips to the US Space Camp Center, under his education programme. (Press reports and social media posts) – newstrails.com
