Fact Check: No, Bihar cop probing Sushant Singh's death will not join CBI probe

Hyderabad: On 5 August, the Central government gave its nod to launch a CBI probe into the death of Bollywood actor Sushant Singh Rajput on a recommendation by the Bihar government.

The 34-year-old actor died by suicide in his Mumbai apartment on 14 June. His death has given rise to speculations and conspiracy theories and has exposed a dark side of Bollywood.

The actor's family had named his girlfriend Rhea Chakraborty in their FIR following which the Bihar police had started an investigation to probe the abetment to suicide charge against her. A team had been sent to Mumbai to investigate the case. An IPS officer who was part of the team had been quarantined for 14 days after his arrival in Mumbai. The officer, Vinay Tiwari, said he had been forced to do so.

On 9 August, a Facebook page, India against Presstitutes, claimed that Vinay Tiwari will visit Mumbai again but this time not as a Patna police officer but as a CBI officer to investigate Sushant's death. The post has more than 2,000 likes and 174 shares.

The same news was also reported by Kalinga TV and Metro Saga.

Fact Check:

The claim that Bihar police officer Vinay Tiwari will join the CBI investigation is false.

NewsMeter searched Google using keywords the "IPS Vinay Tiwari joins CBI". We found no official announcement of the same but the search fetched links to Kalinga TV and Metro Saga. The two websites did not mention the source of their information.

Further, we searched using the keywords "Vinay Tiwari will investigate with CBI" and found an article published on India TV's website. It said that Bihar DGP Gupteshwar Pandey "has rejected all claims of IPS Vinay Tiwari joining the CBI on deputation and assisting in the investigation". The DGP called the reports "fake and without merit", the article said.

We also found Vinay Tiwari's Twitter post where he clarified that the claims he was joining CBI investigations are false. "Some news has been coming since yesterday. They are completely false, misleading and rumoured. Please ignore them," he wrote.

Hence, the claim that Bihar police officer Vinay Tiwari, who was part of the team investigating Sushant Singh Rajput's death, will be part of the CBI investigations is FALSE.