In her written submission to the Supreme Court in the Sushant Singh Rajput case, Rhea Chakraborty has told that the Patna FIR can be regarded as a zero FIR and later can be transferred to Mumbai.
Further, she also alleged that Sushant Singh Rajput’s father has leveled baseless allegations against her. In her written submission, she said,
“A plain reading of the subject FIR is clearly indicative of the fact that no such consequence of such alleged act has ensued within the State of Bihar. The maximum that may be done in such instance, is for the FIR to be registered as a “Zero FIR” and the same may be forwarded to the police station having jurisdiction over the matter.”
What Is A Zero FIR?
The concept of the Zero FIR first came into existence in the year 2013 by the recommendation of the Justice Verma Committee in the Criminal Law Amendment.
According to the Zero FIR, no police officer can refuse to lodge an FIR if the crime has occurred outside its jurisdiction. It is called zero because a regular FIR comes with a serial number while the zero FIR will not have a number. The Zero FIR will remain a ZERO FIR until the preface investigation is done and once it is done, it will be transferred to a police station that has competent jurisdiction.
In her submission, Rhea said that the investigations in Bihar are totally illegal and objected to the transfer of the case to CBI. She wrote,
“The petitioner has no objection if the transfer of investigation to CBI is done in exercise of powers conferred upon this court under Article 142 of the Constitution of India. Otherwise, the present transfer from Bihar police to CBI as is done is total without jurisdiction and contrary to law.”
She also argued that the transfer of the case to CBI with Bihar Police investigation is illegal. She wrote,
“Admittedly, the case registered by the Bihar police was transferred to the CBI for the reasons of a) sensitivity and b) inter-state ramifications. The concept of sensitivity is alien to criminal jurisprudence. There is not even a remote whisper of any material to support the theory of ‘inter*state ramification’. The offense if at all, as alleged is completely within the jurisdiction of Mumbai even as per the ED.”
Source: Free Press Journal
