The Bombay High Court said on Thursday that it would hear the bail petitions of actor Rhea Chakraborty and her brother Showik Chakraborty on September 29, NDTV reported. The siblings, arrested earlier this month over allegations of drug dealings related to the Sushant Singh Rajput death case, are in judicial custody till October 6.
In her bail plea, Chakraborty has said that deceased actor Sushant Singh Rajput “was the only consumer of drugs and used others around him to facilitate his drug habit”.
“The said documents [evidence collected by the investigators] clearly indicate that Sushant Singh Rajput was the only consumer of drugs and that he was directing his staff members Samuel Miranda and Dipesh Sawant to procure his drugs,” Chakraborty’s application said. “Apart from that, the prosecution has made statements to the effect that applicant and her brother Showik are used by the late actor to procure drugs for himself.”
Chakraborty has accused the investigating agencies of targeting her and her brother in a witch-hunt. She claimed that Rajput told her that he had developed a liking for weed during the shooting of Kedarnath in 2015-’16.
Chakraborty has also alleged that Rajput’s sister Priyanka got drunk one night in April 2019 and molested her. She has said that this incident led to a fight between Sushant Singh Rajput and Priyanka, and the souring of his relations with his family. Chakraborty added that Rajput feared that his brother-in-law, an Indian Police Service officer named OP Singh, would use his influence to threaten him.
Chakraborty said Rajput had decided to take medicines prescribed by Priyanka despite her opposition, and had asked her to leave the house, on June 8, which was the last time she saw him. Rajput was found dead in his apartment in Bandra on June 14, in what the Mumbai Police said was a case of suicide.
The case
On September 22, a court in Mumbai extended Chakraborty’s judicial custody till October 6. The Narcotics Control Bureau has described Chakraborty as an “active member of a drug syndicate”.
On September 11, the court had denied Rhea Chakraborty bail in the case. Similar requests of Showik Chakraborty, Rajput’s former manager Samuel Miranda and three other accused were also rejected.
Rhea Chakraborty has claimed that she is being framed in the case and has made multiple serious allegations against the Narcotics Control Bureau. The actor has claimed she was “coerced into making self-incriminatory” confessions, which she has now retracted. She said she had “not committed any crime whatsoever and had been falsely implicated in the case”. Chakraborty is the ninth person to be arrested in the drug-related investigation into Rajput’s death.
The Narcotics Control Bureau is the latest agency to be drawn into the case involving the death of the 34-year-old actor, which is already being looked into by the CBI and the Enforcement Directorate.
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