There are now more and more people, including most importantly private detectives, who hold that the promising film actor from Bihar, Sushant Singh Rajput, was murdered. Collating the information from different detectives probing the case independently, and matching their accounts with the plausible part of Mumbai Police’s statements, it can be said that a week prior to what the local police passed off as a suicide, Rajput had searched for three items multiple times. Prime among the keywords was “Disha Salian”, his former manager who had died about a week before him.

While Mumbai Police Commissioner Param Bir Singh talked of Google to save his own skin, it may be accepted that Sushant searched for news containing his own name. Let’s also agree he might have looked for information about some mental illness. The problem lies in the conclusion Mumbai Police drew out of it for public consumption. Why couldn’t a person so steeped in scientific exploration look for articles on psychiatry? Is every internet user who looks for information on mental illnesses himself or herself a mental wreck?

Further, would a suicide-prone individual not look for ways to end one’s life instead? Was that a time for delving deep into neurological studies? If the police say further that anti-depressants were found in his apartment, given the serious lack of credibility of Mumbai Police — more about the cops’ razzle-dazzle appears later in this article — those pills could well have been planted.

Notably, the strip of anti-depressant pills caught by the police in videography was lying in a vantage position for filming, unused. Note further that fans had never heard of Sushant’s depression or bipolar disorder before Mumbai Police started shelling out one story after another to explain his ‘suicide’.

But then, those who wish to mislead the people and save the real culprits in what looks like a clear case of murder talk of a self-styled psychologist — an arts graduate not qualified to diagnose people, let alone make the diagnosis public — called Susan Walker Moffat. She claims Sushant was suffering from bipolar disorder.

Meanwhile, not only does the police commissioner visit the house of Chief Minister of Maharashtra Uddhav Thackeray, whose son Aaditya is often found hobnobbing with Bollywood personalities, officer Singh also adds the story of Sushant’s psychological condition to lend credence to his theory. So, who is this nexus of politicians and cops trying to save?

Detective Utpal Chaudhary, among the sleuths who show a keen interest in the death of Sushant, is convinced the actor was murdered. Chaudhary’s assessment of the crime is credible, as he has worked closely with the police in several cases and even Sushant had hired him in 2014 to ascertain the credentials of a woman whose name the spy wouldn’t divulge for professional reasons.

Chaudhary holds that the ‘killers’ had a duplicate key (made to order) to Sushant’s flat. With this key, one could lock and unlock the main door of Sushant’s flat from either side. They murdered him and escaped after locking the door so that the investigation that would follow does not hit upon the theory of “forced entry” and thus Mumbai Police would get away passing off the incident as a case of suicide.

The spy holds that Sushant had a kind of temperament that does not gel with the story of suicide. Several friends of the actor like Samuel Hoakip share the view that Sushant could not have been depressed.

Sushant knew too much

The main chapter of the story begins roughly six months before Sushant’s death, but the plot thereof was hatched much before when a dubious Bollywood filmmaker* called Sandeep Ssingh, with ostensibly a numerologically-dictated extra ‘s’ in his last name, manipulated Sushant out of his relationship with Ankita Lokhande and introduced him to Rhea Chakraborty. From various incidents where Rhea played a part, it appears she is a pawn of the Bollywood mafia. They gave her a scripted role to play in Sushant’s life. [*Ssingh used to serve as an assistant to producer Raju Kalia.]

Months after Rhea — the Enforcement Directorate (ED) is probing her for money-laundering — entered Sushant’s life, he was suddenly seen interested in diverse investments. Interestingly, some of the companies that helped route Sushant’s money were involved in a 2017 case of alleged money-laundering by tennis veteran Mahesh Bhupathi and the management of Ryan International School.

Operating in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and other Gulf countries, these companies apparently handle the accounts of people associated with the Indian National Congress and Aam Aadmi Party too — as much as they handle the money of Bollywood’s enfant terrible Salman Khan!

Let’s examine one of the documents above:

Clearly, these associates of Salman Khan were involved in the Ryan money-laundering scam. This suggests the companies named in the documents above are regulars in money re-routing activities. And these are the firms where Rhea despatched Sushant Singh’s money, taking him into confidence or otherwise.

There is a distinct possibility that the Bollywood mafia trusted Sushant Singh Rajput for a while after he was roped in using the services of Rhea Chakraborty, but they panicked on finding out he was difficult to be co-opted and yet now he had access to their secrets. Or Sushant came to know of the questionable investments, questioned Rhea about it and got into trouble.

Meanwhile, since the day of Sushant’s death, his house manager Samuel Miranda went missing. The Enforcement Directorate (ED) has now found and grilled him. The agency had interrogated Sushant’s chartered accountant Sandeep Sridhar two days ago.

The ED had on 31 July registered a money laundering case against Rhea and her family members. The case pertains to “suspicious transactions” worth Rs 15 crore in connection with the death of Sushant.

This is where the investigation by the ED and the probe initiated on 6 August by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) can work in tandem to solve the mystery of Sushant Singh Rajput’s death.

The documents above reached Sirf News from a trusted friend who is an investigative journalist.

The dubious Ssingh

Ssingh, who had befriended Sushant in 2011, says, of course, he was privy to Ankita’s love for the late actor, where she played almost the role of a mother rather than a mere girlfriend. Ssingh then claims he has no clue about Rhea Chakraborty. But we call Ssingh “dubious” for a reason.

In one account, Ssingh says he had met with Sushant “a few months” (two or three?) before the actor’s death. It transpires it had been nearly 10 months since he had last been in touch with Sushant. Why would a ‘friend’ who had not been in touch for 10 months be among the first to be informed of the actor’s death? More importantly, if Ssingh holds it was not a suicide and he is supposed to have told as much to the police, why did Mumbai Police declare the death as a cause of suicide soon after? Yes, not Ssingh alone but also Mumbai Police comes across as dubious from the sequence of events.

But facing Republic TV Editor-in-Chief Arnab Goswami’s interrogation, Ssingh first said he had told the police it was not suicide and minutes later he said the police had not yet recorded his statement. And then again he said, “They (Mumbai Police) have spoken to me. They have taken all the details from me.” Then the channel said Ssingh’s statement was not recorded in the written form.

The CBI must question Ssingh also about the inconsistency between a video he had got someone to shoot where he had said Sushant had committed suicide and his subsequent interview with Arnab Goswami where he said the actor could not have committed suicide.

Disha Salian

Before going further into the death of Sushant, let’s probe the prelude to it: the death of his former secretary Disha Salian. An Instagram post had surfaced, which claimed Disha was pregnant and was quite worked up about it, as the foetus was not of her boyfriend with whom she had bought a flat but of Sooraj Pancholi. The Instagram post has since been pulled down, but another fact about Disha has not been refuted so far.

Before dying, Disha is said to have contacted Sushant to share her woes, where she told the actor her life could be in danger. Since Sushant was himself facing a threat to his life, he couldn’t directly come to Disha’s rescue. Instead, he asked Ssingh to help Disha. Ssingh, in turn, told some members of the Bollywood mafia, with or without the knowledge of the credentials of these people, that Disha had told Sushant about an imminent danger to her life.

An activist told Republic TV, “Someone misbehaved with Disha and she informed Sushant about it. Sushant told her to leave the party and said he would look into it and take action. After a while, Sandeep (Ssingh) calls Sushant and tells him Disha had committed suicide. Sushant was shocked when he heard this and could not believe it. I was informed further that the next day Rhea and Sushant had had a fight. She was not ready to listen to Sushant. After the fight, they separated. Everyone knows what happened after that.”

Disha died on 8 June, falling from the 14th floor of her apartment.

Mumbai Police did not send Disha’s body for an autopsy before two days had elapsed since her death, Times Now has found. Her clothes were not examined. Her phone records were sent four days after the postmortem. And 50 days after her death, the police asked the people of the city to share with them any information related to Disha.

But for all these lapses, Mumbai Police had the gall to make another declaration: That the deaths of Disha and Sushant were not related!

Meanwhile, Dr Meena, who hails from Patna but is based in London, has come out with a revelation that two other associates of Sushant Singh Rajput were murdered over a period of one month leading up to the actor’s death: His associates Manmeet Singh and Pariksha Gupta. The doctor questions the bona fides of Cooper Hospital that declared all these deaths as suicides.

Incidentally or otherwise, Sushant’s body was to go to Lilavati Hospital but went to the municipal corporation-managed Cooper Hospital instead, say some reports. Is this a convenient hospital for manipulations by the Shiv Sena — a vocal endorser of the suicide theory — that now heads the Maharashtra government as well as the Mumbai municipality? If one of the sisters of Sushant had arrived on hearing about the brother’s death, how come Ssingh guided the body all the way to the hospital?

One other thing Ssingh did could go against him in the course of the CBI investigation. He was the person who handed to Mumbai Police Sushant’s passport and other documents. How did he get hold of these sensitive papers?

Three years before Sushant died

On 5 August, Sooraj Pancholi rubbished reports that said he had been in a party the night before Sushant’s death. Mumbai Police says no such party happened in Sushant’s flat the night before, which they came to know from “CCTV footage” on 3 August. But hadn’t they said on 31 July that the CCTV cameras were not working that day?

Anyway, Sooraj and Sushant had clashed much before 13 June. In December 2017, Salman Khan was reported to have rebuked Sushant for ‘misbehaving’ with Sooraj whom the bhai had in 2015 launched in the industry with a remake of Hero. Khan had certainly gone much beyond an admonition.

Before reproaching Sushant, Salman had been on record exclaiming, “Sushant, who?” and retorting, “Why should I make a film with Sushant?” It suggested there were things not working out between the actor who was probed for links with Chhota Shakeel and Abu Salem during the making of the film Chori Chori Chupke Chupke and the new kid on the block from Bihar.

By the way, Shah Rukh Khan, Rakesh Roshan, Ratan Jain, Harish Sughand, Mahesh Manjrekar and Sanjay Gupta are some other Bollywood personalities who had testified in the Chori Chori… case in 2003, but they had all turned hostile as witnesses. As had Salman Khan.

Six months before Sushant died

The faceoff that cost Sushant his life happened on Salman Khan’s birthday, 27 December 2019. According to the doctor referred to above, the conversation between Sushant and Sooraj had veered towards the death of Jiah Khan who had reportedly committed suicide after being impregnated by the son of Aditya Pancholi and Zarina Wahab. It so happened because now Sushant’s then commercial manager Disha Salian was facing the kind of fate that Jiah already had. Sushant was disturbed by the allegedly growing proximity of Sooraj with Disha.

Sooraj brought up the matter with the host of the birthday bash, Salman, expressing the apprehension that he could again have to face the law, and all hell broke loose. The process of Sushant getting kicked out from film projects — or such films getting shelved — happened after this birthday party.

The process of boycotting Sushant from the industry was aided by Mahesh Bhatt, who shares a questionable relationship with Rhea.

The other members of this clique are Karan Johar, Sajid Nadiadwala and Aditya Chopra, claims the doctor.

#MeToo had targeted Sushant too

Boycotting was not the only thing the cabal did. Before that, following Sushant’s first encounter with Salman Khan, they commissioned a section of Bollywood reporters — a sham in the name of journalism — to defame Sushant with a #MeToo story in October 2018. Without any proof, they alleged that the actor had misbehaved with Sanjana Sanghi, who was to pair with him later in Dil Bechara. Sanjana later cleared the air, saying the story was baseless. It was reported that for four nights Sushant could not sleep, anxiously waiting for Sanjana to clarify that the allegation against him was false.

In October 2018, Sushant had shared screenshots of his conversations with Sanjana and denied all claims of sexual misconduct. He wrote, “I feel sad to reveal personal information but it seems that there is no other way to state what actually happened, in the midst of this curated, well-timed and agenda-driven smear campaign. From the first day of the shoot till the last day, this is what happened on the sets with Sanjana. Misconduct? Not at all. Agenda? You decide.”

Sanjana finally did say the story was false, but perhaps under the pressure of the Bollywood mafia, she took her own sweet time to do so. Her excuse for the delay was frivolous: “Everyone thinks only Sushant was the one troubled there but I was as troubled. We knew our truth – I know what he meant to me, he knew what he meant to me and that’s what is important. We were on set shooting every day. When one or two articles come, you can’t pay heed to every rumour that comes out, so you just let it go.”

Sushant’s death

If Mumbai Police is to be believed, on 13 June 2020, the night before his death, Sushant had retired to his bedroom after dinner. At around 2 AM that Sunday, 14 June, he made two calls from his phone using one of the 56 SIM numbers he had purchased in the recent past. He had been changing his SIM cards frequently because he felt he was being tracked by the very people who are likely to have killed him finally in mid-June.

Sushant made one of the calls to Bollywood’s small-time starlet Rhea Chakraborty and another to television actor Mahesh Shetty. It is this Shetty who Ssingh said had informed him about Sushant’s death. If Shetty, along with Ssingh, had not been in touch with Sushant, why would the actor think of them at a time of distress?

Most importantly, if Shetty and Ssingh had not been in touch with Sushant for 10 months before the actor’s death, how did they have Sushant’s latest mobile number out of the 56 SIMs he had bought before allegedly committing suicide? In the event that Sushant called Mahesh, why would he think of a forgotten ‘friend’ before he decided to end his life?

Anyway, both calls went unanswered. So, if Ssingh says he came to know of Sushant’s ‘suicide’ from Shetty, who informed Shetty about it?

Furthermore, in Ssingh’s interview with Republic TV, he sounded as though he arrived at Sushant’s flat on hearing about his ‘suicide’ from somewhere else whereas Dr Meena has found out that the “two friends” various reports talk of, who were living with him, were none other than Mahesh Shetty and Sandeep Ssingh.

This is where the accounts of Utpal Chaudhary and Dr Meena differ. The first holds that the CCTV cameras were very much working and the killers used a duplicate key to lock the flat and escape while the second says Sandeep Ssingh colluded with the apartment managers to switch the cameras off and throw away the key to the entry of the house.

Sirf News had reported some days ago about a real estate agent who had revealed Rhea had approached him, looking for an apartment with no security detail. In the night of 13 June, however, Rhea was not around, or so she claims. Nevertheless, the suspected killers did ensure no guard witnessed their crime inside Sushant’s apartment in Bandra.

In the morning of 14 June, Sushant reportedly spoke to his sister over the telephone at around 9 AM and an hour later he had a glass of juice and his tablets — says Mumbai Police. If a person is suicide-bound, would he care for medicines for better health?

Forensic experts believe Sushant was killed the previous night. While the ligature mark around his neck looked more like the effect of strangulation than hanging, the paleness of the face showed oedema that sets in about 20 hours after death. That is, Sushant was already dead around the time that Mumbai Police claims he had made a phone call to his sister. Detectives hold that the unanswered calls that Mumbai Police talks of were made by the killers to create an alibi.

The murderers also tampered with evidence by tearing off pages from Sushant’s diary (that his former girlfriend Ankita Lokhande spoke of in quite a few interviews).

The killers or their accomplices left another tell-tale sign, which should not be difficult for the CBI to dig out. Hours before the time of Sushant’s officially declared death — between 8:30 AM and 9 AM — somebody had edited the Wikipedia article about the actor to say he had died.

Then, around 10 AM, somebody used Sushant’s smartphone to play video games. If Sushant had been alive but suicide-bound, would he be in a frame of mind to play games?

Around this time, they also tested whether the change in the Wikipedia article was reflecting in Google search.

If Sushant had hanged himself, there would neither be a sign of injury on his right arm nor would there be another scar below the ligature mark. These were signs of the last fight he might have put up before his murderers.

Importantly, hanging a body leaves marks on the skin over the lower jaw whereas the ligature mark around Sushant’s neck ran concentrically to the folds of his neck skin, an inch or so below the lower jaw.

Moreover, hanging causes more deformity of the face, as the noose maintains its grip around the neck for a long time after the person is dead, but if strangulated, the killers would loosen the grip once they are sure their victim is dead. No such severe deformity was noticed on the face or other parts of Sushant’s body.

Most significantly, the piece of long cloth found lying with the corpse was not likely to have served the purpose of making the lethal noose. And the ceiling of the room where the body was found was not high enough for a tall man like Sushant to stand on the bed and still have enough room for hanging.

At around 11:30 AM, Sushant’s cook knocked several times on the door of his room, to get a confirmation for the menu for the day. Was this confirmation necessary? He and Rajput’s friends received no response, the police say. They then called a key-maker to open the door. Or, maybe the key with which they opened the door was already in possession of the accomplices in the act of crime. Then they called Rajput’s sister and the police. Sushant was found hanging from the ceiling fan, claim Mumbai Police. No suicide note was recovered from the spot. That’s a cock-and-bull story, say detectives.