Sushant Singh Rajput death case: NDPS court grants bail to two alleged drug peddlers

The special court under the Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances (NDPS) Act on Tuesday granted bail to two alleged peddlers Ankush Arneja and Suryadeep Malhotra,

The special court under the Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances (NDPS) Act on Tuesday granted bail to two alleged peddlers Ankush Arneja and Suryadeep Malhotra, booked in connection with a drug case linked to actor Sushant Singh Rajput’s death.

Bollywood actor Sushant Singh Rajput’s death triggered an investigation into the illegal narcotics sales in the Bollywood. (Hindustan Times)

Arneja was arrested on September 14 in connection with the case. Malhotra was arrested the next day, based on the Arneja’s statement in which he had claimed to have supplied drugs to Malhotra.

As per NCB’s case, Arneja had supplied drugs to several accused, including Kshitij Prasad. It is alleged that Arenja is “running a kitchen in a plush area of Mumbai and selling narcotics substances like weed, hash and mephedrone or MD to high profile individuals”.

Malhotra, a close friend of Showik Chakraborty, was allegedly providing drugs to Rajput.

The lawyer for the two accused, Taraq Sayyed, had argued that the case is based on the statement of a co-accused, and was therefore invalid. It was alleged that their names cropped up in the interrogation of other drug peddlers, and they were arrested, based on those statements.

Sayyed relied on the recent verdict of the Supreme Court (SC), which held that the confession statement of a co-accused, given before the investigating officer, cannot be taken as substantial evidence against the other accused. Considering this, the court granted bail to the two accused.