Actor Shekhar Suman said that there was “more than what finds” in the suicide of rising Bollywood star Sushant Singh Rajput, and again made a strong demand for a CBI inquiry into the case. Suman, who recently launched a campaign ‘Justice For Sushant Forum’, was addressing a press conference at the residence of RJD leader Tejashwi Yadav, a day after he met Rajput’s bereaved father at his residence here.
“I strongly believe that Sushant’s death is not an open and shut case of suicide,” asserted Suman who claimed to have closely followed the investigation trail and pointed towards “missing links” like absence of a suicide note and facts like misplacement of a duplicate key to the house, and change of SIM card by the actor “50 times in a month”.
Suman clarified that he was not insisting that the deceased actor’s death was “not a case of suicide” but added that even if the 34-year-old had taken his own life, “those guilty of abetment must be identified and brought to justice”.
Asked about allegations levelled by many Bollywood insiders that the Patna-born actor was at the receiving end of “nepotism” in the film industry, Suman — who hails from the Bihar capital — replied in the affirmative. “Besides Shah Rukh Khan and I, Sushant was the only one to have started off as a TV actor and achieve success on the big screen thereafter. A self-respecting man who did not believe in massaging egos of big shots, he must have become an eyesore for many,”
However he refused to take a name when asked if he suspected anyone of giving a short shrift to the young actor, saying “it would be wrong to do so unless I was armed with evidence. And this is precisely the reason I am pressing the demand for a CBI inquiry”.