Drugs case: Friend of Sushant Singh Rajput and Mumbai hotelier Kunal Jani gets bail

A Special Narcotics Drugs and Psychotropic Substances Act (NDPS) Court on Friday granted bail to Bandra-based hotelier Kunal Jani, who was a friend of late actor Sushant Singh Rajput

A Special Narcotics Drugs and Psychotropic Substances Act (NDPS) Court on Friday granted bail to Bandra-based hotelier Kunal Jani, who was a friend of late actor Sushant Singh Rajput. The Narcotics Control Bureau (NCB) had alleged that he had discussed about procuring drugs with actor Rhea Chakraborty on a group chat.

A Special Narcotics Drugs and Psychotropic Substances Act (NDPS) Court on Friday granted bail to Bandra-based hotelier Kunal Jani, who was a friend of late actor Sushant Singh Rajput. (HT File)

Additional sessions judge, VV Patil granted Jani bail on cash bond of ₹15,000.

Advocate Swapnil Ambure, who argued for Jani, had told the court that the agency had found chats about him asking for 1-mg cocaine. The chats were old and the cocaine was for personal consumption, argued Ambure.

Section 27 (punishment for consumption of any narcotic drug or psychotropic substance) of NDPS Act has a maximum punishment of one year. The Act provides that lenient view be taken when charges are of personal consumption. He was not ordering the drugs for any profits and cannot be compared with peddlers and suppliers, argued Ambure. He also said that no material was found from Jani.

Special public prosecutor Atul Sarpande, who had appeared for the agency, had told the court that the charges against Jani were serious and drugs have become a menace in the society. Serious sections of the Act have been applied against Jani, as he was in touch with several suspicious people.

The agency had alleged that though no drugs were found from Jani’s possession, he acted as a mediator for drug peddlers and clients and his name had cropped during questioning of those arrested following the death of Rajput.

Jani was arrested by NCB on October 1 in the same case in which Agisilaos Demetriades, the brother of an actor’s girlfriend, was arrested.

Jani, along with Shilpa Shetty’s husband Raj Kundra, is the director of Bandra’s Bastian Restaurant.