NEW DELHI: A day after the Centre issued a notification to hand over the probe into actor Sushant Singh Rajput’s suicide to the CBI, the agency on Thursday filed an FIR against actor Rhea Chakraborty and her family members Indrajit Chakraborty, Sandhya Chakraborty and Showik Chakraborty, apart from Rhea’s associates Samuel Miranda, and Shruti Modi. They are already under investigation by the Enforcement Directorate and have been questioned.

The FIR also mentioned ‘others’ in the accused column implying that there may be more accused who are unidentified yet. The FIR was filed under sections pertaining to criminal conspiracy, abetment to suicide, wrongful restraint, wrongful confinement, theft, criminal breach of trust, cheating and criminal intimidation.

The CBI’s action is in keeping with the speed with which the Centre has responded to Bihar government‘s plea seeking a probe by the federal investigating agency, and cannot please the Maharashtra government.

Authorities in Maharashtra have questioned the competence of Bihar police to launch a parallel probe into a case which was already being investigated by Mumbai police. It has also opposed the demand for a CBI probe saying Mumbai police were conducting a diligent investigation and it would be interesting to watch its stand in the Supreme Court which is seized of the dispute.

The CBI probe into the Rajput case is arguably a first because the agency is barred from investigating cases falling under the jurisdiction of states unless requisitioned by the state government concerned or ordered by courts. In the current instance, the agency has stepped in on the basis of the request of a state government, ie Bihar, to probe a crime which took place in another state, Maharashtra.

The SC’s stand on the matter might set a precedent or prevent one.

The CBI has only invoked the initial sections based on Bihar police’s FIR and the complaint given by Rajput’s father and can be modified at a later stage according to developments in the probe. The time period of the offence has been mentioned in the FIR as between June 8 and June 14. Rajput was found dead in his apartment in Mumbai on June 14.

The case has been handed over to the anti-corruption Unit VI (SIT), New Delhi, given the economic aspects of the case and recent controversies including a turf war between Mumbai and Bihar police.

The SIT in CBI comprises joint director Manoj Shashidhar, DIG Gagandeep Gambhir and additional SP Anil Yadav among others. Yadav will be the investigating officer in the case.

The CBI will collect case related documents from Mumbai and Bihar police. It will also study the autopsy report and the statements recorded by Mumbai police before summoning the accused for questioning.

A psychological autopsy will be conducted to shed light on the case, an official said. A team will also visit Rajput’s Mumbai residence and get the crime scene inspected afresh.