Can Mumbai And Bihar Police Investigate The Same Case

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What happens when a body is found?

As per Section 174 of the Code of Criminal Procedure,
An Accidental Death Report (ADR) is taken when an accidental death, suicidal death or unnatural death comes to light.
As per Section 174, “the officer in charge of a police station receives information that a person has committed suicide…he/she shall proceed to the place where the body of such deceased person is, and there, draw up a report of the apparent cause of death, describing such wounds, fractures, bruises, and other marks of injury as may be found on the body, and stating in what manner, or by what weapon or instrument (if any); such marks appear to have been inflicted.
The officer then records statements of the family members and those who can shed light behind the cause of death.”
If no one makes any allegations, suicide note does not blame anyone and the post mortem report does not indicate murder,
An ACP rank officer then ends the report at ADR stage.

After actor Sushant Singh Rajput’s body was found at his Bandra residence on June 14,
The local police registered an Accidental Death Report (ADR) in the matter.

Generally, the post mortem report points out if a person died of suicide or was killed based on the ligature marks around the neck, viscera report that shows if any poison was administered, injury marks on the body, time of death etc.
There have been cases where an ADR was later turned into a murder case – under Section 302 of the Indian Penal Code – after the post mortem report or forensic report indicated a person was murdered.
Apart from this, if the family members allege someone drove the person to die by suicide, or if a suicide note is found,
The police can register an abetment to suicide case under Section 306 of the Indian Penal Code.

Since the family members of Rajput did not make any allegations to the Mumbai police and the post mortem reports did not indicate any foul play,
The matter is still as an ADR at the Bandra police station.
The Bihar Police, however, registered an FIR under sections of the Indian Penal Code including abetment to suicide based on the allegations made by Rajput’s father against Rhea Chakraborthy and her family.
It is as part of this FIR that a police team from Bihar came to the Mumbai, resulting in a tussle between the two forces.

A case can be formally transferred to another agency like the CBI, but two agencies cannot probe the same FIR simultaneously.
In cases where a money laundering aspect emerges, the Enforcement Directorate registers an Enforcement Case Information Report (ECIR) and restricts its probe to the money laundering aspect of it.
Even in the Sushant Singh Rajput case, after his father alleged to Bihar Police that money had been transferred to unidentified accounts from Rajput’s bank account,
The ED registered an ECIR under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA).
However, under regular crimes, if an offence has taken place in Mumbai and the family is in Bihar, as per law, they can go to the nearest police station in Bihar
and register an FIR.
The police station is duty bound to register a “zero FIR” and transfer the case to the police station under whose jurisdiction the crime has taken place.

In order to ensure that a citizen does not have to run from one police station to another to register an FIR,
The law has allowed any police station across the country to register an FIR as soon a cognisable offence is disclosed to them.
The Ministry of Home Affairs had first issued an advisory to this effect on May 10, 2013.