Need to look into legal aspects: AIIMS panel chief on report on Sushant’s death

The doctor’s remark comes at a time when the lawyer of Rhea Chakraborty, who has been accused by Rajput’s father of driving his son to suicide, has demanded that a new medical board be formed by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) to keep probe into the actor’s death case impartial.

The chief of Delhi’s All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) panel that is re-examining the circumstances that led to actor Sushant Singh Rajput’s death in June said on Monday that there is a need to look into some legal aspects before reaching a “logical legal conclusion”.

“AIIMS and CBI are in agreement on the Sushant Singh Rajput death case but more deliberations are needed. There is a need to look into some legal aspects for a logical legal conclusion in due course of time. It will be totally conclusive,” Dr Sudhir Gupta, chairman of AIIMS’ Forensic Medical Board in Rajput’s death case, was quoted as saying by news agency ANI.

Gupta’s remark comes at a time when the lawyer of Rhea Chakraborty, who has been accused by Rajput’s father of driving his son to suicide, has demanded that a new medical board be formed by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) to keep probe into the actor’s death case impartial.

“The disclosure of a 200% conclusion by an All India Institutes of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) doctor on the forensic team headed by Dr Sudhir Gupta in Sushant Singh Rajput’s death case, on the basis of photographs, is a dangerous trend,” Chakraborty’s lawyer Satish Maneshinde had earlier said.

Maneshinde was responding to a tweet by Vikas Singh, the lawyer of Rajput’s father, in which he claimed that a doctor, who is part of the AIIMS team, had told him “long back” that the actor’s photos indicated that it was allegedly death by strangulation, not suicide.

“The doctor who is part of AIIMS team had told me long back that the photos sent by me indicated 200% that it’s death by strangulation and not suicide,” Vikas Singh had written on Twitter.

Following the 34-year-old actor’s death on June 14, the Mumbai police had lodged an Accidental Death Report (ADR). However, Rajput’s father K K Singh on July 25 lodged a complaint with the Patna police against Chakraborty, her parents Indrajit and Sandhya, her brother Showik, the late actor’s then manager Shruti Modi and his house manager Samuel Miranda.

After the CBI approached AIIMS for its assistance, a five-member medical board of forensic experts was formed in August to look into the autopsy files related to Rajput’s death at his apartment in Mumbai’s Bandra.

The CBI is probing the actor’s death while the Enforcement Directorate (ED) and Narcotics Control Bureau (NCB) are investigating the money laundering and drug-related angles in the case respectively.