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Sushant Singh Rajput death: Judicial custody of actor Rhea Chakraborty, others extended till October 20
Actor Rhea Chakraborty, her brother Showik and 18 others were remanded in judicial custody till October 20 on Tuesday. The Bombay high court (HC) is expected to deliver its order on their bail pleas today.
Actor Rhea Chakraborty, her brother Showik and 18 others were remanded in judicial custody till October 20 on Tuesday. The Bombay high court (HC) is expected to deliver its order on their bail pleas today.
Chakraborty, Showik and 18 others have been arrested by the Narcotics Control Bureau (NCB) as part of its probe into allegations of drug abuse in the case of actor Sushant Singh Rajput’s death. The term of their judicial custody ended on Tuesday and the arrested accused were produced before a magistrate court via video conferencing. The court extended their judicial custody till October 20.
The arrested accused have been charged under the Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances (NDPS) Act. A special court turned down Chakraborty and Showik’s bail pleas on September 11, after which the two moved HC for bail.
According to NCB, Chakraborty and Showik financed the deceased actor’s drug habit. Advocate Maneshinde, who is representing both Chakraborty and Showik, has maintained section 27 A (financing illicit trafficking of drugs or harbouring offenders) of the NDPS Act are not applicable to his clients. He has argued that Rajput was known to have consumed drugs before making Chakraborty’s acquaintance in April 2019. Also, according to Maneshinde, NCB’s allegations are on the basis of a solitary incident from March 17, when Chakraborty gave Miranda her credit card and the latter withdrew Rs 10,000, allegedly to purchase some contraband material for Rajput. Maneshinde has said Chakraborty’s card was not directly used to pay any alleged drug peddlers and therefore she cannot be considered associated with a drug syndicate.
Advocate Taraq Sayed, who represents arrested accused Abdel Basit Parihar, has submitted that Parihar is a student of architecture who had to miss an examination, due to being in judicial custody, and cannot be termed drug peddlers or suppliers. Since the alleged transactions involve small quantities of drugs, Sayed has also argued that Parihar, Chakraborty, Showik and Miranda are entitled to bail along with arrested accused Dipesh Sawant, who was part of Rajput’s household staff.
Additional solicitor general Anil Singh, who opposed the bail applications on behalf of NCB, had submitted that the NDPS Act does not state that offences are bailable based on the quantity of drugs involved. Justice Sarang Kotwal had agreed with his submission on September 29.
