Actor Rhea Chakraborty was arrested by the Narcotics Control Bureau in a drugs case related to Sushant Singh Rajput’s death. Her brother, Showik, and Sushant’s house manager, Samuel Miranda, had been arrested days earlier by the NCB. The development came after 3 consecutive days of questioning of Rhea by NCB investigators. A day before her arrest, Rhea had filed a complaint with Mumbai police against Sushant’s sister Priyanka Singh. The former had accused the latter of procuring a fake medical prescription for the late actor. Rhea alleged that within five days of Priyanka getting the prescription for anxiety medicines for Sushant, he died. The actor was found dead at his Mumbai residence on June 14. His father accused Rhea of abetting his suicide and siphoning off his assets.
Showik and Miranda has been booked under sections that pertain to production, manufacture, possession, sale, purchase and transport of narcotic or psychotropic substance and abetment and conspiracy under NDPS Act. The offence carries a maximum punishment of one-year imprisonment and a fine.
The arrested duo had procured marijuana from drug peddlers for Rajput, officials claimed. The duo, however, did not use marijuana, sources said. NCB officials, who claimed that they want to uproot the drug cartel in Mumbai, especially Bollywood, said the drug - Bud, a curated form of marijuana - is in demand in Bollywood and sold for around ₹5,000 per gram. Rhea in an interview had said Rajput “used to smoke marijuana and drink regularly”.
The Enforcement Directorate probing the money laundering angle had found chat messages pertaining to drugs on Rhea’s mobile that triggered this investigation. The ED had passed on the details to the NCB. The ED had cloned her mobile and found her involvement in purchase, consumption, transportation and usage of contraband, NCB had claimed. Officials said her Whatsapp chats with other entities point to conspiracy and abetment. Earlier in the day, NCB carried out searches at Rhea’s Bandra residence where she stayed with her brother Showik, and Miranda’s flat in Sahar village. Both were brought to the NCB office where they were questioned before placing them under arrest.
NCB had earlier arrested another ‘drug supplier’, Basit Parihar, who has been remanded in custody till September 9. “Basit Parihar has not only admitted to having purchased and sold marijuana, but he has said he used to procure drugs from Vilatra and Kaizan (two other suspects) as per Showik’s instructions and was directing them to deliver it to Samuel,” Parihar’s remand application states.
Zaid Vilatra was arrested on Wednesday, while Kaizan Ibrahim was being questioned by officials. Basit’s lawyer Tarak Sayyed said, “These are youngsters from affluent families. How is the NCB branding them drug peddlers? They have been remanded in custody though nothing has been recovered from them and the sections under which they are arrested are bailable.”
