Tag: drug peddlers

Narcotics Control Bureau Arrests Rhea Chakraborty; to Remain in Judicial Custody till Sept 22

The NCB had earlier arrested her younger brother Showik, Rajput’s house manager Samuel Miranda and his house staffer Dipesh Sawant.

New Delhi: Actor Rhea Chakraborty was arrested by the Narcotics Control Bureau, after appearing for questioning in the drugs case linked to the death of actor Sushant Singh Rajput for the third consecutive day on Tuesday.

She will be produced before a magistrate through video conferencing by 7.30 pm, ANI has reported.

K.P.S. Malhotra, deputy director of the Narcotics Control Bureau, confirmed her arrest at 4 pm. The NCB did not seek further custody of Rhea, but opposed her bail, Indian Express quoted NCB deputy DG Mutha Ashok Jain as having said. She has been remanded in judicial custody till September 21.

The NCB is headed by Rakesh Asthana, against whom the CBI, under the directorship of Alok Verma, had decided to file an FIR for taking bribes.

Chakraborty’s appearances at the questionings had led to scenes of pitched media attention, which many likened to a witch-hunt. Photographs of journalists shoving mics at her and hounding her on day one of the interrogation have gone viral on social media.

Among the first to react to the news of her arrest was Bihar DGP Gupteshwar Pandey, whose curious attention to the case has been explored in a piece by Umesh Kumar Ray on The Wire.

Chakraborty’s lawyer Satish Maneshinde, according to a tweet by journalist Rajdeep Sardesai, has called her arrest a “travesty of justice”.

Several others have called the arrest the mark of a section of media ‘winning’ in imposing the foregone conclusion of a trial that has been playing out on primetime for a month now.


The current NCB probe began after the ED shared with it a report, after it cloned two mobile phones belonging to the actor, and arrived at the conclusion that her private conversations suggested procurement, transaction and consumption of banned drugs, PTI has reported.

On Tuesday, Chakraborty reached the Narcotics Control Bureau (NCB) office located at Ballard Estate in south Mumbai, around 10.30 am in a car escorted by a Mumbai Police vehicle.

Earlier, she was questioned by the NCB for about eight hours on Monday and six hours on Sunday.

The agency earlier said it was getting “her cooperation” in the drugs case probe linked to case of death of Rajput (34), who passed away at his apartment in suburban Bandra on June 14.

Also read: Is the BJP Deriving Political Mileage Out of the Sushant Singh Rajput Case?

After the questioning session on Monday, NCB Deputy Director General (south-west region) Mutha Ashok Jain told reporters that the agency was doing a “professionally thorough and systematic job” and it will inform the court about its “findings in detail” in this case.

The NCB had earlier arrested her younger brother Showik Chakraborty (24), Rajput’s house manager Samuel Miranda (33) and his house staffer Dipesh Sawant.

Rhea Chakraborty was earlier questioned by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) and the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) that are also probing Rajput’s death.

In her interviews given to multiple TV news channels, the actor had said she has never consumed drugs herself.

A total of nine people have been arrested till now by the NCB with seven directly linked to this probe, while two were arrested when the investigation was launched under criminal sections of the Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances (NDPS) Act.

(With agency inputs)

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Note: This is a developing story.

Sushant Death Case: Narcotics Control Bureau Summons Rhea Chakraborty

Agency officials served her with a notice at her home early on Sunday. She is expected to turn up for questioning later in the day.

Mumbai: A Narcotics Control Bureau (NCB) team reached actor Rhea Chakraborty’s home in Mumbai on Sunday morning to serve her summons for joining probe in the drugs case linked to the death of her live-in partner and actor Sushant Singh Rajput, officials said.

The agency has said that it wants to question Rhea, 28, the main accused in the death case, to take the probe forward in the case.

“The team has gone to serve the summons for joining investigation. She(Rhea) can come on her own or she can come with the team,” a senior official of the federal anti-narcotics agency said.

A team led by NCB joint director Sameer Wankhede reached Rhea’s house located in Santa Cruz (west) area accompanied by local police and some women personnel.

The team left after some time and it is expected that Rhea will appear before the agency later in the day, they said.

“We have summoned her. She will come respecting the summons,” Wankhede told reporters outside the NCB office in Ballard Estate after he returned from Rhea’s house.

The agency has said it also wants to confront Rhea with Showik, Miranda and Sawant in order to ascertain their individual roles in this alleged drug racket after it obtained mobile phone chat records and other electronic data that suggested some banned drugs were allegedly being procured by these people.

Also read: Sushant Singh: This Macabre Circus Will Terrorise People Into Covering up Mental Illness

Rhea, in interviews given to multiple TV news channels, has said that she has never consumed drugs herself.

She had, however, claimed that the late actor used to consume marijuana.

The NCB, over the last two days, has arrested her younger brother Showik Chakraborty (24), Rajput’s house manager Samuel Miranda (33) and Dipesh Sawant, a member of the actor’s personal staff, in this case.

It is claimed that Miranda told NCB investigators that he used to procure bud or curated marijuana for the late actor’s household.

Sawant was arrested on Saturday and he is expected to be produced by the agency before a local court on Sunday for seeking his custody.

A total of 8 people have been arrested till now by the NCB with six being directly linked to this probe while two were arrested by it when probe was launched under criminal sections of the Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances (NDPS) Act.

When the probe in the case began, the agency had arrested two men, Abbas Lakhani and Karan Arora, for alleged drug peddling and officials have claimed that through them they reached Zaid Vilatra and Abdel Basit Parihar who are allegedly linked to this drugs case as they were in touch with Miranda.

Miranda, they had said, used to allegedly procure drugs from them on the purported instructions of Showik, agency officials said.

Both Lakhani and Arora have been granted bail. The NCB had said it recovered 59 grams of cannabis from them.

The NCB, while seeking remand of one of the accused in this case few days back, had told a local court that it was looking into “the drug citadel in Mumbai, and especially Bollywood” in this probe.

This case has given the NCB an “inkling” into the narcotics network and its penetration in Bollywood or Hindi movie industry, NCB Deputy Director General Mutha Ashok Jain told reporters outside the agency’s office on Saturday.

Various angles surrounding the death of the 34-year-old actor are being probed by three federal agencies, including the Enforcement Directorate (ED) and the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI).

The NCB initiated a drug angle probe in this case after the ED shared with it a report following the cloning of two mobile phones of Rhea.

Rajput was found dead at his flat in suburban Bandra area on June 14.

Sushant Case: Rhea’s Brother Showik Remanded in NCB Custody

One Samuel Miranda was also arrested in connection with the drugs probe linked to actor Sushant Singh Rajput’s death, officials said.

Mumbai: A Court here on Saturday remanded Showik Chakraborty and Samuel Miranda, arrested in connection with the drugs probe linked to actor Sushant Singh Rajput’s death, to the custody of the Narcotics Control Bureau (NCB) till September 9.

Showik is the brother of the main accused in the case, Rhea Chakraborty, while Miranda was house manager of the deceased actor.

They were arrested on Friday night under various sections of the Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances (NDPS) Act after questioning of 10 hours.

Various angles surrounding the death of the 34-year-old actor are being probed by three federal agencies, the Enforcement Directorate (ED) and the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) being the other two.

Showik Chakraborty, brother of main accused in the case Rhea Chakraborty, and Rajput’s house manager Samuel Miranda have been placed under arrest under various sections of the Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances (NDPS) Act, a senior NCB officer said.

Both Showik and Miranda have been named as accused by the ED and the CBI in the FIRs registered by them in Rajput’s death case.

The Sections pressed against them, he said, are 20(b) that deals with production, manufacture, possession, selling, purchase and transport of cannabis, 28 (punishment for attempt to commit offences), 29 (punishment for abetment and criminal conspiracy) and 27(a) that defines punishment for financing illicit traffic and harbouring offenders.

They will be produced before a Local Court on Saturday.

The two are required to be put under custodial interrogation to unravel more details about the procurement, transportation and usage of the narcotics. The agency has a “strong case”, the officer said.

The arrests came after over 10 hours of questioning of the two, who were brought to the agency’s office in Ballard Estate area here by the NCB sleuths after their premises were raided early morning.

Accompanied by police officials, the NCB searched the residence of Showik in Santa Cruz (West) and Miranda’s house in suburban Andheri (West) from 6:30 am. Showik lives with sister Rhea.

The search teams included women officials and they were seen wearing masks and gloves and using multiple vehicles.

NCB Deputy Director (operations) K P S Malhotra, who is heading the probe team of the agency, was seen leading the search and he told media persons on the ground that the houses of Showik and Miranda were being searched which was a “procedural” action.

During the searches, both were handed over the summons brought out under section 67 (power to call for information) of the NDPS Act to join the investigation, the officials said.

“They intended to go along (with the search team) due to media presence,” an officer said.

He said the agency is looking to gather additional evidence through this action and some documents have been seized by the search teams.

He said Rhea (28), Rajput’s live-in partner, is expected to be summoned soon.

The NCB, till now, has arrested two alleged drug peddlers operating in the capital city of Maharashtra in this case and it has detained one person.

The two arrested are Zaid Vilatra (21) and Abdel Basit Parihar (23) while Kaizan Ibrahim is being questioned since Thursday.

Bandra resident Parihar was arrested after interrogating Vilatra.

Parihar is learnt to have “links” with the narcotics case registered against Rhea and others.

Parihar is linked to a person who was allegedly reported to be featuring in chats recovered from the mobile phones of Rhea and Showik, officials have said.

The agency is probing the drug angle in this case under criminal sections of the NDPS Act after the ED shared with it a report following the cloning of two mobile phones of Rhea.

The NCB has said it is looking into “the drug citadel in Mumbai, and especially Bollywood” in this case.

According to officials, the mobile phone chats and messages indicated procurement, transportation and consumption of drugs and these leads were shared by the ED with the NCB and the CBI.

The NCB is understood to have obtained the phone records of other accused in the case too.

Rajput was found dead at his Bandra flat on June 14.

(PTI)