Maharashtra seeks CBI inquiry into Modi’s biopic producer Sandip Ssingh over ‘drug links’
State Home Minister Anil Deshmukh said the filmmaker’s association with the BJP would also be looked into.
Maharashtra Home Minister Anil Deshmukh on Saturday said he would send the details of film producer Sandip Ssingh’s suspected drug links for an inquiry to the Central Bureau of Investigation, NDTV reported. Ssingh is known for producing a biopic of Prime Minister Narendra Modi ahead of the 2019 General Assembly elections.
“The CBI [Central Bureau of Investigation] is going to investigate Sandip Ssingh, who had made the biopic on the Prime Minister – what relation does he have with the BJP,” Deshmukh said. “Similarly, what connection does he have with Bollywood and drugs – I’ve got many complaints about that too. We will forward these requests for [an] investigation.”
The Congress, which is a part of the ruling coalition in Maharashtra along with the Shiv Sena and the Nationalist Congress Party, had on Friday demanded that a “BJP angle” in the death of actor Sushant Singh Rajput be inquired. Maharashtra Congress spokesperson Sachin Sawant had tweeted a photo of Ssingh with former Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis, alleging a “drug nexus” in Rajput’s death. He said that the CBI will question Ssingh in connection with the case.
Fadnavis refuted the allegations and claimed that Singh only had connections with the Shiv Sena, The Indian Express reported. “Why did the Mumbai police not investigate these people earlier?” he asked. “The person in question may have been present at some function where I was present. There is also some report that the same person was the director of a movie to be made on Balasaheb Thackeray.”
State BJP spokesperson Keshav Upadhaye responded to Sawant’s allegations with a screenshot of a 2015 article, which stated that Smita Thackeray, daughter-in-law of Bal Thackeray, was planning to produce a biopic on the late Shiv Sena supremo and produce it jointly with Ssingh.
On Wednesday, the Narcotics Control Bureau registered a case against actor Rhea Chakraborty among others to investigate her alleged dealings in banned drugs. Rajput was found dead in his apartment in Mumbai on June 14, in what the Mumbai Police said was a case of suicide.
