A special Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances Act court in Mumbai on Tuesday extended the judicial custody of actor Rhea Chakraborty and her brother Showik Chakraborty till October 20 in a drug case related to actor Sushant Singh Rajput’s death, ANI reported. Rhea Chakraborty has been accused of procuring drugs for Rajput.
This is the second time the court has extended the actor and her brother’s judicial custody. The Narcotics Control Bureau has described Rhea Chakraborty as an “active member of a drug syndicate”.
On September 29, the Bombay High Court had reserved its verdict on their bail pleas. During the hearing, the NCB had opposed their pleas, arguing that their alleged crime was “worse than murder or culpable homicide”
In her bail petition, Chakraborty had said that Rajput “was the only consumer of drugs and used others around him to facilitate his drug habit”. Chakraborty also accused the investigating agencies of targeting her and her brother in a witch-hunt.
Rhea Chakraborty made multiple serious allegations against the Narcotics Control Bureau and 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.
Rajput was found dead in his apartment in Bandra on June 14, in what the Mumbai Police said was a case of suicide. On October 3, the All India Institute of Medical Sciences panel, which was in-charge of examining his autopsy reports, had ruled out that the actor was murdered and confirmed he died by suicide.
The case is already being looked into by the Central Bureau of Investigation and the Enforcement Directorate. Several high-profile actors, including Deepika Padukone, Shraddha Kapoor and Sara Ali Khan, have also been questioned in the drugs case.
Sushant Singh Rajput’s sisters move Bombay HC
Sushant Singh Rajput’s sisters Priyanka Singh and Meetu Singh on Tuesday moved the Bombay High Court, seeking to quash the first information report filed against them by the Mumbai Police, PTI reported. The police had lodged a report against them on September 7 for forgery and obtaining fake medical prescription for Rajput. The FIR was based on Rhea Chakraborty’s complaint.
A division bench of Justices SS Shinde and MS Karnik has posted the matter for hearing on October 13, saying there was no urgency. The petition has sought a direction to the Central Bureau of Investigation from taking any coercive steps against them.
In the police complaint, Chakraborty had accused Rajput’s sisters and a doctor, Tarun Kumar, of forging a prescription of medicines supposedly meant for anxiety that are reportedly banned under the Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances Act, 1985.
“A bare perusal of the complaint and the FIR shows it does not make out any cognisable offence,” the petition filed by Rajput’s sister said. “The drugs that have sought to be allegedly given by Dr Tarun Kumar are not banned drugs.”
In their petition, Rajput’s sisters claimed that the police report was filed just on the basis of media reports and was full of irregularities and discrepancies. They added that there was a delay of 90 days in filing the complaint as the medicine concerned was prescribed on June 8 and the complaint was filed on September 7.
“There is nothing in the FIR to suggest that the petitioners had used the prescription to buy the alleged drugs from any third party or induced it to Rajput,” the plea said. It further alleged that Chakraborty was trying to tarnish Rajput’s image by suggesting he had a mental illness and was addicted to drugs.
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