Ace lawyer, Supreme Court senior advocate and former Solicitor General Harish Salve has come out all guns blazing against Mumbai Police for the sham of an ‘investigation’ conducted by them in the mysterious death of late actor Sushant Singh Rajput. Speaking to Times Now, Salve, in no uncertain terms has called out the Mumbai Police for their cheapjack handling of the case. Whether it be the leaking of pictures of the actor’s mortal remains or the police’s overenthusiasm at labelling it a suicide, and also their reluctance to file a FIR into the case, Harish Salve took the city’s police to the cleaners rather unsparingly.
“If today Bombay police find itself to be pilloried, it deserves to be pilloried,” Salve sharply remarked on the issue of Mumbai Police facing flak from all quarters. He said that in a functional system, the media should stand behind the issue while the investigations are going on. This, in a clear remark suggesting the dysfunctionality of the Mumbai Police when it came to handling the late actor’s death case. Speaking about the role of the media and a section of it investigating the matter on their own, he said, “Thank God, somebody did it.”
Salve also said that the police failed and that is why media rose to the challenge in investigating the case, further saying “well, in a case like this, they (Mumbai Police) deserve to be blamed.” During his conversation with Navika Kumar at Times Now, Salve also remarked, “We have made a complete mockery of criminal investigation system and we have only one agency to thank for this – Mumbai Police.”
If today the Mumbai Police finds itself pilloried, it deserves to be pilloried. If media hadn't investigated here, this would've walked away with the story given by Mumbai Police: Harish Salve, Sr Advocate, SC tells Navika Kumar on @thenewshour Spl Ed. | #SalveDemolishesRheaLobby pic.twitter.com/T1g1ko5p5H
— TIMES NOW (@TimesNow) August 29, 2020
Harish Salve also took down the police for allegedly leaking pictures of Sushant’s mortal remains. Calling the leaked pictures no less than ‘morphed’, the senior and internationally acclaimed advocate asked as to how someone other than the Mumbai Police could leak the morphed images, since they were the first ones to reach Sushant’s residence on June 14, the day the actor allegedly ‘hanged’ himself.
Speaking about the Mumbai Police’s reluctance at registering a FIR in the case, Harish Salve made it clear that they should have immediately investigated the murder angle in the case, since the family has been citing foul play in the case ever since. “The fairness of an investigation also must be transparent…The first instinctive reaction should have been probing the murder in this case,” Salve said, as he did not shy away from blaming the Maharashtra government for delaying the investigation by filing an inquest report.
Harish Salve is a lawyer par excellence, and is credited with ensuring justice for Kulbhushan Jadhav, an Indian citizen about to be given the death penalty by Pakistan’s kangaroo courts. He fought pro bono for Jadhav, who has been illegally detained by Pakistan. Harish Salve had ensured a stay on the same, by impeccably arguing India’s case at the International Court of Justice. Salve, during the peak of the anti-CAA protests, had debunked all theories of the legislation being unconstitutional, and had also vouched for the constitutionality of the same.
The Mumbai Police is receiving backlash from several quarters for their lackadaisical, and allegedly motivated investigation into the case relating to the death of Sushant Singh Rajput, which they, alongside the government of the state, have been keen on declaring a ‘suicide’. Interestingly, Rhea Chakraborty, the prime accused in the case has been incessantly vouching for an investigation by the Mumbai Police, almost as if it were to come with an immunity for her and her family, all of whom are recognised as accused in a FIR lodged by the CBI.