CBI questions Sushant's friend, house helps, visits his flat
Mumbai: CBI sleuths on Sunday questioned actor Sushant Singh Rajput's friend Siddharth Pithani, cook Neeraj Singh and domestic help Deepesh Sawant at the DRDO guest house here in connection with his death case and later visited the actor's flat in Bandra along with them, an official said.
In the morning, Pithani, Neeraj and Sawant arrived separately at the DRDO guest house in Kalina are of Santcaruz, where the Central Bureau of Investigation's (CBI) officials probing the case are staying, an official said.
These three persons, who were present in the flat when Rajput (34) was found hanging in his room on June 14, were questioned for about five hours following which the CBI sleuths took them to the late actor's residence at Mont Blanc Apartments in suburban Bandra around 2.45 pm, he said.
Forensic science experts were also part of the CBI team which visited Rajput's residence, the official said. Mumbai Police officials were also present at the actors house, he added.
On Saturday also, the CBI team accompanied by Pithani, Neeraj and Sawant visited the late actor's house in Bandra to reconstruct the sequence of events before he was found dead.
Another CBI team on Saturday visited the state-run Cooper Hospital in the city, where autopsy had been performed on Rajput's body.
A third CBI team had visited the Bandra police station to meet Mumbai Police officials who were investigating Rajput's alleged suicide earlier.
On Friday, the CBI officials recorded the statements of Pithani and Neeraj.
The Supreme Court on Wednesday upheld the transfer of an FIR, lodged by Rajput's father in Patna against actor Rhea Chakraborty and others for allegedly abetting his suicide, to the CBI.
After Rajput was found hanging in his apartment in June, the Mumbai Police registered a case of accidental death.
Later, Rajput's father filed a police complaint in Patna, accusing Chakraborty and her family of abetting the actor's suicide and misappropriating his money.
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Congress using hijab issue to pacify minority anger, alleges Karnataka LoP R Ashoka
Bengaluru: Leader of Opposition in the Assembly R. Ashoka has accused the Congress government of using the hijab issue to placate what he described as discontent among minority voters after the Davanagere by-election.
In a post on X on Wednesday, Ashoka alleged that the state government, instead of addressing issues such as price rise, corruption, farmers’ distress and law and order, was attempting to retain its minority vote base by reviving the hijab issue.
Referring to the 2022 dress code introduced by the BJP government, which prohibited hijab in schools and colleges, Ashoka said the Karnataka High Court had upheld the policy and emphasised the importance of discipline in educational institutions.
He questioned the Congress government’s move to revisit the issue and asked whether setting aside the court-backed policy to benefit one community could be described as secularism.
Ashoka further alleged that while the government was willing to permit hijab, it continued to prohibit saffron shawls.
He accused the government of dividing students on religious lines rather than treating schools and colleges as spaces of equality.
Drawing a comparison with Mamata Banerjee’s government in West Bengal, Ashoka claimed that excessive appeasement politics had harmed the state and warned that the Congress in Karnataka could face a similar political response.
He said voters in Karnataka would teach the Congress a lesson for what he termed “vote-bank politics” and for compromising constitutional and judicial principles.
