By Raju Vernekar
Mumbai, Sept 9:
Actress Rhea Chakraborty being interrogated in connection with actor Sushant Singh Rajput’s death case, was placed under arrest and remanded to judicial custody till 22 September by Narcotics Control Bureau (NCB) on Tuesday evening.
Rhea (28) was arrested on charges of procuring drugs, on completion of her questioning for three days, at NCB’s office at Ballard Estate in South Mumbai. She became the 10 th accused in the drug cartel case which the NCB has been following for the last few days. Some drug peddlers, her brother and staff members of Sushant’s staff have already been arrested earlier.
Rhea will be put in a temporary lock-up set up in NCB’s office. NCB officers are expected to confront her with others in days to come and she may be taken to places for recovery if any, to break the drug cartel.
“Rhea has been arrested and the due process of informing the family has been completed,” NCB Deputy Director (Operations) KPS Malhotra said. The NCB sources said that Rhea was arrested based on Whatsapp chats and the statements of the other accused.
The copy of remand read as “ Based upon disclosure by Showik Chakraborty, Samuel Miranda and Dipesh Sawant, one more person Rhea Chakraborty was summoned and her voluntary statement was recorded. During her statement on all three days she was confronted to all other accused persons and facts in their statements were verified. She has acknowledged their statements and her role explained. During statement the present respondent Rhea Chakraborty revealed about her involvement in procurement of drug and financial transaction. Therefore, it is clear from statement that respondent is an active member of drug syndicate connected with drug supplies.”
Rhea was arrested under sections 89(c), 20(b), 27(a), 28 and 29 of the Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances Act (NDPS). She was questioned, in the last few days, over a drug abuse case in connection with Sushant’s death at his residence in Bandra in North West Mumbai, on June 14. She was confronted with Showik, Miranda, and Sawant to ascertain their roles in an alleged drug racket. Showik, Miranda, and Sawant are already in police custody. On the third day of her interrogation, she admitted that she was consuming not just marijuana, but also hard drugs. Earlier Rhea had also admitted ‘procuring drugs’ along with her brother Showik.
Rhea’s arrest came a day after she approached the Mumbai police with a complaint against Sushant’s sister Priyanka Singh and a doctor for allegedly getting Sushant psychiatric medication without consultation,usuig forged paperwork. The Mumbai police has registered an FIR in the case.
Calling her arrest a “travesty of justice”, her lawyer Satish Maneshinde said, “Three central agencies have been hounding a single woman just because she was in love with a drug addict and was suffering from mental health issues for several years under the care of five leading psychiatrists in Mumbai, who ended up committing suicide due to consumption of illegally administered medicines and used drugs.”
The NCB said they had come across chats in a Whatsapp group, which included Rhea’s younger brother Showik, Sushant’s cook Dipesh Sawant and Sushant’s ex-house manager Samuel Miranda, where marijuana was discussed. Miranda had earlier said that he produced weed for Sushant.
As per deposition before the NCB by the accused, on April 17 Rhea and Showik had instructed Dipesh to receive a delivery of 10 gm of hashish from Kaizen Ebrahim near Mont Blanc building, Bandra West. On May 1, Showik told Dipesh to receive marijuana from a person named Dwayne and had received 50 gm of marijuana from him on May 2.
The CBI has registered an FIR against Rhea and others in connection with Sushant’s death. Rhea was earlier questioned by the CBI and Enforcement Directorate (ED), which are probing different angles surrounding Sushant’s death.
Sushant’s autopsy had indicated that he died by suicide. His father, K K Singh however, filed an FIR against Rhea in Patna on 25 July, accusing Rhea of driving his son to suicide and misappropriating his money. She has denied the allegations on several occasions.
