Mumbai, Oct 3 (IANS): The ruling Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) allies on Saturday slammed the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), saying its "conspiracy to defame the Maharashtra government" has been exposed in the AIIMS forensic report into actor Sushant Singh Rajput's death.
The forensic department of the All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS), Delhi, in its report to the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) has "hinted" that the death of Bollywood actor Sushant Singh Rajput was suicide and not murder, sources said on Saturday.
"The Mumbai Police probe was in the right direction. Even the Supreme Court was satisfied with the investigations, and now the AIIMS' report has pointed at suicide," said state Congress general secretary and spokesperson Sachin Sawant.
Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) spokesperson Mahesh Tapase demanded criminal action against all those who were part of the plot to slander the state government and the city police.
Maharashtra Home Minister Anil Deshmukh demanded that the CBI must now table its report in the Sushant probe, which has been going on for long.
"We will not comment till anything comes to us. However, people must know whether it was a suicide or murder," Deshmukh said.
Lawyer Satish Maneshinde appearing for actress Rhea Chakraborty -- the prime accused in the Bollywood drugs case -- said that "truth cannot be changed" and that they are eagerly awaiting the CBI report based on the AIIMS' submissions.
"I have seen the statements on the AIIMS doctors' report but the official papers are with the CBI and AIIMS, which will be submitted before the court. We are waiting for the CBI's official version. We are committed to truth alone," Maneshinde said.
Contending that the BJP stands exposed on the issue, Sawant urged the MVA to set up a special investigation team (SIT) to unravel the 'masterminds' behind the entire episode aimed at discrediting the state and dislodging the MVA government.
"A big plot was hatched to use the Sushant case in the Bihar Assembly elections and hide the failures of the BJP government in the Centre. Even the then DGP of Bihar Police, Gupteshwar Pandey, played a key role in the conspiracy. Thousands of fake social media accounts were opened overnight to defame the Maharashtra government and Mumbai Police," Sawant said.
In this, investigators selectively leaked information and sections of the media pursued a similar agenda to malign the state government and the city police, but now the move has backfired, he added.
"It is surprising how until yesterday, there were wild rumours that the CBI would register a murder case under IPC Section 302, and it was spread by certain sections of the media and the BJP's IT cell. But today the situation has changed," Sawant pointed out.
Tapase said that among those who were at the forefront of making libelous statements were Pandey, who has now joined politics, and called for initiating action against all those involved in the plot.
Sawant termed the BJP's strategy of defaming non-BJP governments in the country as "dangerous for democracy", and said the SIT should go to the roots and find out who were the real perpetrators of the entire conspiracy.