Death of Sushant Singh Rajput

 

On 14 June 2020, the Indian actor Sushant Singh Rajput was found dead hanging from the ceiling fan at his home in Bandra, Mumbai. The cause of death was ruled to have been suicide. The official postmortem reports concluded that he died of asphyxia due to hanging. The Mumbai Police launched an investigation into the death, which was surrounded by rumors and speculation.

A week prior to his suicide, Rajput had googled three subjects multiple times: Disha Salian, his former manager who had died about a week before him; news reports containing his own name; and information about a mental illness.

On 13 June 2020, the night before his death, Rajput retired to his bedroom after dinner. At around 2 a.m. on Sunday, 14 June he made two phone calls, one to Bollywood actress Rhea Chakraborty and another to television actor Mahesh Shetty. Neither call was answered. Rajput then woke up early that morning. Some time after, he googled information about "schizophrenia", "bipolar disorder" and "painless death".

Two of Rajput's friends were living with him. In the morning of 14 June, he spoke to his sister over the telephone at around 9 a.m. and an hour later he had a glass of juice and his tablets. At around 11:30 a.m., his cook knocked several times on the door of his room, to confirm the menu for the day. He and Rajput's friends received no response. They then called a key-maker to open the door, following which they called Rajput's sister and the police. He was found hanging from the ceiling fan. No suicide note was recovered from the spot.

The Indian Express reported that the Mumbai Police said the actor had shown symptoms of clinical depression and was consulting a psychiatrist. Times Now reported that medical papers and anti-depressant pills were found in his house.