Patna (Bihar): While expressing grief over the sudden demise of his nephew and Bollywood actor Sushant Singh Rajput, the late actor's maternal uncle has rejected reports of suicide and has alleged "murder" while demanding a Central Bureau of Investigation-led inquiry into the incident.
"This is a case of murder. The youth of Bihar and the Rajput Mahasabha demands a CBI enquiry into the incident. We demand a CBI enquiry from Union Home Minister Amit Shah and Prime Minister Narendra Modi into the murder," said RC Singh, Sushant Singh Rajput's maternal uncle.
Referring to 28-year-old Disha Salian's suicide a few days ago, who was Rajput's Personal Assistant, Singh said, "His manager had committed suicide a few days ago and he was under a lot of pressure from the police, administration as well as locals."
Meanwhile, Rajput's paternal uncle recalled a few conversations that he had with his nephew, "He used to say that he wanted to reach the top. He would tell us that he had to work very hard. Sometimes for eighteen hours at a stretch."
"Once he was part of a dance programme with Madhuri Dixit and he told me that his back had started hurting but he did not stop, " said the uncle in a choked voice as he tried to hold back his tears.
Also read: Live: People mourn sudden demise of Sushant at his residence in Patna
34-year-old popular Bollywood and TV actor Sushant Singh Rajput's body was found hanging from the ceiling fan at his Bandra residence in Mumbai on Sunday morning.
Sources from the Bandra Police said that on the basis of primary investigation, a case of accidental death report will be registered. No suicide note was found from the spot, they said.
According to sources, Singh was under medication because of depression. He is survived by his father and four elder sisters.
The post-mortem reports are awaited. The last social media post shared by the actor, who hailed from Patna, was dedicated to his mother, who passed away in 2002 when he was a teenager.
"Blurred past evaporating from teardrops. Unending dreams carving an arc of smile. And a fleeting life, negotiating between the two," read the Instagram post shared on June 3 with his mother's picture.
An engineering dropout, Rajput was inclined towards dancing when he was a student at Delhi Technological University. He soon enrolled in choreographer Shiamak Davar's dance classes and later joined acting guru Barry John's classes.
He also performed as a background dancer in the song "Dhoom again" with Hrithik Roshan and Aishwarya Rai Bachchan in the 2006 film "Dhoom 2".
Also read: Actor Sushant Singh Rajput commits suicide, Mumbai cops investigating
But it was the small screen that gave the "outsider" his breakout role as the coy and mild-mannered Manav in soap opera Pavitra Rishta, which ran from 2009-11, and was produced by Ekta Kapoor.
Two years later, he made his foray into films with Kai Po Che! in 2013. He has starred in movies such as Shuddh Desi Romance, Raabta, Kedarnath and Sonchiriya but his most prominent role came as cricketer Mahendra Singh Dhoni in the 2016 biopic, MS Dhoni: The Untold Story.
In his last screen appearance, "Chhichhore", Rajput played the role of a father who conveys the message of hope and affirmation to his son after he attempts suicide.
After Irrfan Khan and Rishi Kapoor succumbed to cancer and Wajid Khan from the Sajid-Wajid duo fell prey to the coronavirus pandemic, this is the fourth death of a famous personality from the Hindi film industry in the past two months.
