On Friday, Rhea Chakraborty was finally summoned by CBI for questioning. Recently, her interviews with India Today and NDTV had gone viral.
Rhea had finally opened up about the allegations and the controversy. From ‘Aditya Thackeray’, ‘15 crores’, ‘Disha Salian’, ‘MeToo’ and more, she broke her silence in the SSR Case.
ADITYA THACKERAY, MUMBAI POLICE & DCP
Rhea said that she doesn’t know Aaditya Thackeray. She also stated that she neither has his number nor has she met the politician ever. She rubbished allegations that someone powerful is protecting her and pressurising the Mumbai Police, saying ‘no one is protecting her.’
“There is a call log that was leaked. My friend is named Anaya Udhas, and her name is saved as AU on my phone, that has been misconstrued as Aaditya Uddhav [Thackeray]. She has issued a clarification also, but no one believes us. I don’t know Aaditya Thackeray. I have only seen him on TV. I am being treated worse than a terrorist.”
Rhea denied reports that Mumbai police were friendly to her.
“I thought they were doing a good job. It has been said that they were very friendly to me, no they weren’t. I had a hard time too, but they were doing a thorough job. Mumbai Police were extremely harsh, ED was harsh and so will be CBI. I want the truth to come out but not by targeting me.”
She also clarified about reports of her talking to Bandra DCP, saying that – “Firstly, I wasn’t the accused at the time. And more importantly, I spoke to him regarding the rape and death threats I was getting at the time.”
KHAR FLAT AND COMPANIES
Rhea denied reports of SSR buying her a flat in Panvel. Or of any transactions between the 3 companies. She also denied that any money was transferred from Sushant’s account to her or her family members accounts. She said that, in fact, she had sent Rs 35,000 to repay him for her make-up expense.
“No. The only transaction was where I sent Rs 35,000 to him, that is because he had once paid for my hair and make-up, and I felt, no, I will return the money to him. As far as the flat in Khar is concerned I bought it before meeting Sushant. It’s a small flat worth 72 lakh; out of which I took a loan from HDFC bank amounting to Rs 50 Lakhs. None of it had Sushant’s involvement and, in fact, I am still paying the EMIs for the flat. These are all baseless allegations. Even where the companies are concerned, I paid Rs 66,000 for Showik and me, that is it. Sushant was 99% stakeholder while Showik was 1%, just for namesake purposes. Apart from this, there hasn’t been a single transaction amounting to anything in the companies.”
DISHA SALIAN
Rhea left on June 8 and Disha Salian died on June 9. This is what she said about Disha Salian and her death –
“I met her once when she came to Sushant’s Carter Road home. I met her for like 10 minutes, I never spoke to her after, I don’t have her number, I don’t know how much she interacted with him either. I think she became his manager in March 2020, after that the lockdown happened, and Shruti Modi, who was his earlier manager, fractured her leg, which is when Disha was assigned by Cornerstone talent agency.
Unfortunately, I wasn’t there, so I don’t know how her death impacted him. But I can tell you, when your name is attached to someone, and things like ‘suicide’ are used in the headline, it affects you. Today, I can tell you how much it affects you.”
15 CRORES LINK WITH RUMI JAFFERY’S FILM?
Rhea further shared that multiple agencies are already grilling her about the 15 crores amount along with checking up on her bank accounts.
“Ours was not a financial relationship. Which gold-digger shops from Zara?”
“This is such a baseless allegation. It’s not a small amount that nobody could find it even after such investigation. I have talked to the Mumbai Police, I am undergoing investigation with ED. Where is Rs 15 crore? They could have found it if this money was in my account. Sushant never transferred even one rupee to either me or my family.”
Rhea also elaborated that Sushant had signed a film with producer Vashu Bhagnani. Sushant had a meeting with Bhagnani and the film’s director Rumi Jaffery, and possibly got paid 15 crores as signing amount. The film was to star both Sushant and Rhea in the lead.
“Sushant, Vashu Bhagnani and Rumi Jaffrey had a meeting. In the meeting, perhaps Rs 15 crore was mutually decided as the signing amount between Sushant and Vashu sir. Sushant was very happy about this. This happened in the month of February, the same month that Sushant’s sister and brother-in-law OP Singh met him in Bandra. Sushant gave them the good news that he has or will receive Rs 15 crore. Now, I wasn’t there, so I don’t know exactly, but he certainly brought up Rs 15 crore, which also meant he was getting better, recovering from his depression and he was signing new films. I think this is why this sum Rs 15 crore stuck with everyone,” Rhea said.
They were supposed to start shooting in May; however, the nationwide lockdown due to the novel coronavirus stalled the shoot.
Rhea added, “This was a verbal agreement, nothing was signed on papers. Unfortunately, the lockdown happened soon after; we were supposed to start shoot in May, and the contract work would have happened in March-April, but things got postponed and therefore no transaction happened between the two of them either.”
DRUG ANGLE
With the current ‘drug angle’ under scanner, when asked about Gaurav Arya, Jaya Saha and the messages with Samuel Miranda, Rhea said –
“I deny the contents of the conversation with Gaurav, I knew Gaurav, but this conversation didn’t happen, and I would like to reserve the rest for the investigation. As far as Jaya is concerned, I didn’t add anything to Sushant’s coffee, maybe he himself added it.”
SANJANA SANGHI AND #METOO
Rhea also opened up about the #MeToo allegations and Sanjana Sanghi. She alleged that Sushant thought ‘Sanghi and Rohini Iyer’ were a part of a big nexus.
“Sanjana Sanghi and Rohini Iyer troubled him a lot. Rohini had introduced us but later she stopped talking to us. Sanjana and Rohini, Sushant thought, were part of a big nexus. It was odd that if I am doing a film, a big film, why would you take so much time to clarify the #MeToo allegations? I want this to be investigated. Why will I keep quiet for a one-and-a-half months? Wherever she [Sanjana Sanghi] was, be it America or anywhere on Earth, she would have had Google. Every budding actor checks news about them. So, did she not know about such a big piece of news?”
“Sanjana Sanghi had alleged that Sushant Singh Rajput harassed her, and those #MeToo allegations haunted him. Sanjana hadn’t given any clarification, she finally came out 1.5 months later, but that destroyed Sushant’s mental sanity. Later, Sushant had to come out and reveal their personal chats himself.”
VIKAS SINGH
Meanwhile, after Rhea’s interview went viral, SSR’s family lawyer posted – “I strongly believe that people in conflict with law should be barred from media publicity. It spoils their reputation if they are innocent and gives them undue visibility if they are guilty.”