Sushant Singh Rajput death case: Executive producer Kshitij Prasad moves NDPS court for bail

Kshitij Ravi Prasad, a former executive producer of a popular film production house, has approached the special Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances (NDPS)

Kshitij Ravi Prasad, a former executive producer of a popular film production house, has approached the special Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances (NDPS) Act court for bail, pleading that he has been falsely implicated in the Sushant Singh Rajput death case. The plea is scheduled for hearing on October 14.

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Prasad was arrested by the Narcotics Control Bureau (NCB) on September 26 for allegedly receiving contraband from the alleged peddlers who had supplied charas to actor Rhea Chakraborty and her brother Showik.

NCB alleged that Prasad’s role was revealed during the interrogation of Sanket Patel, one of the alleged drug peddlers. Patel claimed that he had delivered ganja (marijuana) to Prasad at his residence in Andheri on the instructions of Karamjeet Singh, an alleged drug distributor with a local network catering to the Bollywood fraternity. Patel had further stated that he delivered ganja around 12 times to Prasad from May to July.

Prasad has refuted all the allegations and claimed that during the interrogation, when Patel was first brought in to identify him, he failed. “When the applicant [Prasad] was confronted with the accused Sanket Patel during his interrogation, the said accused categorically stated that he did not recognise the present applicant. Thereafter, the respondents instructed the applicant to leave the room and when he was called back after a few minutes, the said accused Sanket suddenly purported to recognise the present applicant,” read the bail plea.

The bail plea further claimed that according to NCB, Prasad allegedly bought 50g of ganja 12 times from Karamjeet through Patel between May and July and paid ₹3,500 per packet, totalling a sum of ₹42,000.

“That total amount of ganja alleged to have been purchased by the applicant is 600g, which would still be a small quantity, which at the most would squarely fall within the ambit of section 20(b)(ii)(A) (relates to production, manufacturing, possession, sale, purchase, transport or uses cannabis), which is punishable with a maximum imprisonment of up to one year or with fine, or both. Hence, the allegations against the present applicant make out an offence for a small quantity at the most,” Prasad claimed in his plea.

He has further claimed that NCB has mechanically booked him under section 27A (financing illicit traffic and harbouring offenders).

Prasad has alleged that during his interrogation, he was “coerced by the agency to falsely implicate Bollywood actors Ranbir Kapoor, Dino Morea, and Arjun Rampal”. He alleged that the NCB consistently threatened and coerced him to make statements against Karan Johar and other senior production executives.