The Narcotics Control Bureau (NCB) files a whopping 12,000-plus pages charge sheet against at least 33 persons, including film actress Rhea Chakraborty, her brother Showik and others in the Bollywood-drugs mafia probe case arising out of the death of actor Sushant Singh Rajput, officials said on Friday. The charge sheet, has been filed before a Mumbai Special Court, follow two cases registered by the NCB after an intimation from the Enforcement Directorate, which was probing the financial angles in Sushant's death on June 14 last year.
An NCB team with trunk-loads of the voluminous charge sheet and other papers reached the Special NDPS Court to file it before a Special Judge. According to NCB Deputy Director Operation KPS Malhotra, NCB today filed its first complaint in Mumbai regarding the Bollywood Drugs Connection. The first complaint (charge sheet) has been filed against 33 accused, out of which 8 people are still in jail in judicial custody. While the rest of the accused have been released on bail. The investigation of the case is still going on and the NCB believes that many people are yet to be identified.
Besides Rhea, a girlfriend of Sushant and her brother Showik, the NCB sources said the late actor's ex-manager Samuel Miranda, his house help Dipesh Sawant, drug peddler Anuj Keshwani, from whom commercial quantity of drugs (LSD sheets and marijuana) were first recovered, figure in the charge sheet.
There are two foreign nationals Agisilaos Demetriades, the brother of actor Arjun Rampal's South African girlfriend and model Gabriella Demetriades, Kshitij Prasad, a former executive producer connected with Dharma Productions and two college students who are said to be the last mile peddlers, who are named. However, senior officials remained tightlipped on the issue and declined to come on record.
According to the NCB, during the investigation, a large quantity of drugs, banned drugs, electronic gadgets and Indian currency besides foreign currency have also been seized. It is clearly written in the charge sheet that during the investigation, the purchase of drugs, the use of drugs, has also been mentioned in the investigation of the accused's gadgets and mobile phone data. The recovered drugs were sent for chemical examination.
The investigation of the case was based on the statements of the accused, technical evidence such as the call of the accused, detailed WhatsApp chats, bank details, financial transactions and other statements and documentary evidence. The charge sheet is a total of 11 thousand 700 pages which has been filed in the court in electronic form.
According to further investigation, a supplementary charge sheet will also be filed soon.
In August last year, the NCB Mumbai had registered two cases related to the drugs angle which emerged in the investigations into Sushant's death.
Moving swiftly, the NCB had arrested Rhea and Showik, and several other persons in September last year, creating an upheaval in Bollywood circles.
The Chakraborty siblings and several other arrested-accused are currently out on bail.
On the morning of June 14, 2020, Sushant, 34, was found hanging at his duplex rented flat in a posh building in Bandra, triggering a massive furore in Bollywood and political circles.
Subsequently, the NCB spread its net wide and questioned several celebrities, including Sara Ali Khan, Shraddha Kapoor, Deepika Padukone, Rakul Preet Singh, Karishma Prakash, and had nabbed comedian couple Bharti Singh and Haarsh Limbachiyaa, who are now bailed out.
Simultaneously, the NCB has gone hammer and tongs after the drugs mafia in Mumbai with a series of seizures and arrests from Mumbai and surroundings in the past six months.
The Maharashtra government has repeatedly demanded that the CBI should make public the findings of the probe into Sushant's death -- whether it was suicide or murder -- in public interest.
(With Inputs from Abhay Parashar and JayPee Singh)
