Mumbai: The decision to quarantine a Bihar Police officer, who reached Mumbai to supervise the probe being conducted by that state’s police into the death of actor Sushant Singh Rajput, is as per the Maharashtra governments directives, the city civic body said on Monday.
The officer will have to make a formal request to the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) authorities for relaxing the necessary quarantine period, it said.
On Sunday night, Patna City Superintendent of Police Vinay Tiwari was quarantined by the BMC and his hand stamped indicating the isolation period till August 15 after he arrived here.
He has been quarantined for 14 days at the State Reserve Police Force (SRPF) guest house in suburban Goregaon.
Bihar Director General of Police Gupteshwar Pandey later alleged that Tiwari was “forcibly quarantined” by civic authorities in Mumbai.
“IPS officer Vinay Tiwari reached Mumbai today from Patna on official duty to lead the police team there but he has been forcibly quarantined by BMC officials at 11 PM today.
He was not provided accommodation in the IPS mess, despite request, and was staying in a Guest House in Goregaon,” Pandey tweeted.
However, the BMC on Monday cited the Maharashtra’s government directives, dated May 25, where rules for domestic travellers include necessary home quarantine, among others.
“The BMCs P/south ward officials came to know about the domestic travel of a Bihar police officer and his staying at SRPFs group 8 guest house located in Goregaon (East),” the BMC said in a statement.
“As per the directives, the BMC officials reached the guest house and informed the Bihar police officer about the directives of necessary home quarantine after such domestic travel, it said.
“The officer will have to make a formal request to BMC officials for relaxing the necessary home quarantine period, the civic body said.
Rajput, 34, was found hanging at his apartment in suburban Bandra on June 24.
After Tiwari arrived at the Mumbai airport on Sunday, he told reporters that he was here to supervise his team and will probe all possible angles in the case.
“Mumbai Police are probing the case as per their style and we will do so as per ours. If required, we will also record the statements of Bollywood celebrities whose statements were recorded by the Mumbai Police.”
Mumbai Police, who are probing the case of Rajput’s death, have so far recorded statements of nearly 40 people, including those from the actor’s family, his cook and people from the film industry like filmmaker Mahesh Bhatt, film critic Rajeev Masand, director-producer Sanjay Leela Bhansali and filmmaker Aditya Chopra.
The Bihar Police team is probing a separate ‘abetment to suicide’ case on the basis of a complaint filed by the late actor’s father in Patna last week.
So far, the Bihar Police have recorded statements of 10 people in connection with Rajput’s death.
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