DIPAK MISHRA: ‘Justice for Sushant’ chorus dies down in Bihar, actor’s death not a poll issue for any party
There was a chorus for a CBI probe, along with a rallying cry for justice, besides political manoeuvring around his death, but five months on, Bihar’s political parties appear to have forgotten actor Sushant Singh Rajput. Rajput’s death by suicide in June had prompted a number of parties in Bihar to demand a CBI probe, sparking a back and forth between the BJP and the Maha Vikas Aghadi government in Maharashtra, and even a tussle between the police departments of Patna and Mumbai.
But with campaigning under way for the three-phase assembly elections, set to begin on 28 October, not a word is being uttered about Rajput by any of the political parties. The electorate is not keen to talk about him either. Instead, the entire campaign now seems to have worked against Rajput. “Wo toh ganja pita tha. Ho sakta hai usi mein mar aya ho (He smoked weed. He may died due to it,” Sudhakar Singh, a resident of Mokama on the outskirts of Patna, said while speaking to The Print.
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Singh resides in the riverine area of Mokama in a village dominated by Rajputs, the community the actor belonged to. His sentiments were echoed by Basant Singh, a resident of Paliganj municipal area. “Woh Mumbai mein actor tha. Humko yahan aur bahut se issues hai (He was an actor in Mumbai. I have many other issues here,” he said. Sources in the BJP said that even the actor’s cousin, Neeraj Kumar Bablu, who is the party candidate from the Chattarpur assembly segment in Saharsa, has not made it a poll issue. “Even Neeraj and his supporters do not touch the issue while campaigning,” a BJP leader said. Whatever enthusiasm was left for the Justice for Sushant campaign evaporated after the report of AIIMS Delhi ruled suicide as the reason for his death….
Hannah
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