MUMBAI, Aug 11: The Enforcement Direct-orate on Tuesday questioned actor Sushant Singh Rajput’s friend and roommate Siddharth Pithani, business manager Shruti Modi and elder sister Meetu Singh in connection with a money laundering case linked to his death.
While Pithani and Modi arrived at the office of the central probe agency in the Ballard Estate area around 11 am in response to their scheduled summons, Meetu Singh reached a little after 1 pm.
She was escorted by women officials of the Mumbai Police to the ED office, thronged by scores of media personnel since questioning in the case began last week.
This is the first time that a member of Rajput’s family is appearing before the ED. Rajput has four sisters.
Both Pithani and Modi were questioned by the agency on Monday and their statements were recorded under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA). Modi was questioned last week as well.
Pithani, an IT professional, had told various news channels that he was present in the Bandra flat on June 14 when the 34-year-old actor allegedly hanged himself.
Pithani, who Rajput called ‘Buddha’, was stated to be living with the actor for about a year. He had earlier recorded his statement with the Mumbai Police as part of its accidental death report (ADR) probe in the case.
On Monday, the ED questioned actor Rhea Chakraborty, the prime accused in the case, for about nine hours. The 28-year-old has been questioned for around 18-19 hours till now. (PTI)
Her father Indrajit Chakraborty and brother Showik have also been questioned for various lengths of time earlier.
Rhea and her family are expected to be called in for questioning again. A friend of Rajput to whom officials said a payment has been made from the actor’s account may also be called in.
The ED has earlier questioned the chartered accountants (CAs) of Rhea and Rajput and the deceased actor’s house manager Samuel Miranda.
The agency is understood to have asked Rhea – who had stated in her petition to the Supreme Court that she was in a live-in relationship with Rajput – about her friendship with him, business dealings and developments between them over the last few years.
The ED’s line of questioning, officials said, revolves around Rhea’s income, investments, business and professional deals, and links.
Also under the ED’s scanner are two properties linked to Rhea, one in the city’s Khar area and the other in Maharashtra’s Raigad district, for their source of purchase and ownership.
Agency sources have said they “want more answers” from Rhea over the alleged mismatch between her income, expenditure and investments.
They said Rhea has filed Income Tax Returns stating an income of about Rs 18 lakh in the recent past but the value of her investments is reportedly higher.
Her father, they said, is a retired defence personnel who gets a pension of around Rs 1 lakh per month.
The sources said Rhea told the agency that she had made the property investments from her income, savings and has also taken bank loans.
Rhea has been accused by Rajput’s father of abetting his son’s suicide. She had initially refused to appear before the agency citing her appeal pending before the Supreme Court that is slated to be heard on Tuesday. (PTI)
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