Mumbai Police have registered a First Information Report based on a Zero FIR filed by their counterparts in Bihar in connection with the death case of 26-year-old television actor Akshat Utkarsh in the capital of Maharashtra. Bihar Police had registered a zero FIR at Utkarsh’s hometown of Muzaffarpur based on his family’s complaint against his girlfriend and her sister.
Officials say it is unusual for the police in one state to try to investigate a crime that primarily relates to another. But Bihar Police had departed from this standard practice in August this year when it registered an FIR for abetment to suicide, dishonestly inducing delivery of property and breach of trust in actor Sushant Singh Rajput’s death in Mumbai on a complaint from his father KK Singh.
The zero FIR has been transferred to Amboli Police from Bihar according to the procedure. The FIR was registered in Mumbai’s Amboli police station under sections 302 (punishment for murder) and 34 (acts by several persons in furtherance of common intention) of the Indian Penal Code (IPC), according to police officials cited by news agency ANI.
Amboli Police officials said that they are investigating the matter and booked a struggling actress and her sister on Thursday for allegedly killing Utkarsh.
Utkarsh was found dead in his rented apartment in Mumbai’s Andheri area on September 27. According to Amboli Police officials, he died by suicide and was depressed due to lack of work. His family, however, had dismissed claims, saying Utkarsh was murdered. Amboli Police had initially registered an accidental death record (ADR) in connection with the case.
Akshat’s father Vijaykant Chaudhary had said in a written complaint that a struggling actor who was a friend of Akshat wanted to marry him. But when he refused to marry her, she with the help of her sister killed him, said Amboli Police officers.
An FIR can be filed in any police station irrespective of the place of incident or jurisdiction. The FIR is filed at a police station that does not have jurisdiction over the incident and is known as a ‘zero FIR’. The zero FIR is then transferred to the appropriate police station, which files an actual FIR and investigates the case.
