By Raju Vernekar
Mumbai, Sept. 4:
In significant development, the Narcotics Control Bureau (NCB) raided residence of actress Rhea Chakraborty, accused in the death case of actor Sushant Singh Rajput in the early hours of Friday, even as the number of people arrested in connection with drug peddling within a week rose to four in Mumbai.
NCB sleuths, including a female officer, reached Rhea’s residence at Santacruz in North West Mumbai at about 6:30 AM, to investigate into allegation of her and her brother Showik’s involvement in drug deals. Subsequently NCB also raided the residence of Sushant’s close aide, Samuel Miranda.
The development came a day after the NCB questioned Kaizan Ibrahim, a suspected drug trafficker, in connection with the drug trafficking probe linked to Sushant death case. Ibrahim was apprehended after the questioning of Abdel Basit Parihar, who has already been arrested by NCB.
Till now NCB has Abdel Basit Parihar and Zaid Vilatra and has sent them to police custody till September 9. Similarly Abbas Lakhani and Karan Arora, were arrested in another narcotics case on August 27-28 in Mumbai and a consignment of bud (marijuana) was recovered from them.
.Indian currency worth Rs 9.55 lakh and foreign currency (USD 2,081, 180 British Pounds, 15 dirhams), was recovered from Zaid. He disclosed that he ran an eatery in Bandra which was not giving any pecuniary gains since lockdown and as such he was into drug peddling, especially bud, through which he used to earn a substantial amount of money. Zaid came under the scanner after the agency arrested Abbas Lakhani and Karan Arora.
Parihar, a resident of Bandra, was arrested after interrogation of Zaid. Parihar is learnt to have links with Rhea(28) and others. Rhea is the main accused in the Sushant death case and is being probed by the NCB, the Enforcement Directorate (ED) on money laundering charges and the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI).
In a private WhatsApp group — including Rhea, Showik, Samuel Miranda, Dipesh Sawant — the conversation indicated drug procurement. Rhea in the chat asked Showik, ‘How many buds are required’ to which he explained how they could procure it. According to NCB sources Showik had sought the purchase of 5 grams of drugs for Rs 10,000 through Miranda and cell tower data showed Miranda was within 125m of the drug dealer consequent to the conversation.
The NCB has also submitted a list of 18 persons allegedly involved in the drug nexus to the Mumbai Police. Of these, four are said to be ‘big names’, including one actor, one filmmaker and two politicians.
