Amid the likelihood of Bollywood actresses Sara Ali Khan, Rakul Preet Singh Singh and fashion designer Simone Khambatta being summoned by it for questioning later this week, the Narcotics Control Bureau (NCB) on Monday questioned Suashant’s talent manager Jaya Saha in connection with the ongoing drug case related to actor Sushant Singh Rajput’s death.
On a day the informed sources in the investigating confirmed that they would record the statements of Sara, Rahul and Simone under section 67 of the The Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances (NDPS) Act, 1985, the NCB officials questioned grilled Saha for more than four hours on Monday. He has been called for questioning once again on Tuesday.
Sushant’s ex-manager Shruti Modi will also be questioned by the NCB officials on Tuesday.
It may be recalled that Jaya Saha’s name had figured in the WhatsApp chats recovered by the ED from actress Rhea Chakraborty’s mobile phone that reveal that the actress might have been involved in drug dealings. The recovered WhatsApp chats among Rhea, her brother Showik Chakraborty, Sushant’s house manager Samuel Miranda, house staff Dipesh Sawant and Saha had thrown sufficient hints about their alleged involvement in the procurement and use of drugs for Sushant.
Though a section of the electronic media was mentioning that actress Shraddha Kapoor would also be called for questioning along with Sara and others, there was no confirmation to that effect from the NCB.
Sources said that the NCB would question Sara, Rakul and Simone on the basis of Rhea’s statement recorded by the NCB. The three were among others who used to have drug parties at Sushant’s farm house at Lonavla near Pune. Rhea had reportedly told the investigators
It may be recalled that NCB’s deputy director (operations) KPS Malhotra had on September 14 confirmed that the names Sara , Rakul and Simone had figured in the Sushant Singh Raput death-related drug case.
“There has been an issue that whether the name of Sara, Simone and Rakul surfaced during the investigation…the answer to that is yes,” Malhotra had said, while talking to media persons.
As many as 16 persons have so far been arrested in the Sushant Singh Raput death-related drug case registered by the NCB. Actress Rhea Chakraborty and her brother Showik are two of the arrested accused in the case.
A descendent of the Tagore and Pataudi families, Sara (25) is the daughter of actor Saif Ali Khan and his first wife Amrita Singh and grand-daughter of late Indian cricket captain MAK Pataudi and actor and former Censor Board chairperson Sharmila Tagore. Sushant and Sara had worked together in the 2018 film Kedarnath, a Hindi romantic drama.
Rakul Preet (29) has acted in several Hindi, Tamil, Telugu and Kannada films, while Simone (29) is a fashion designer and social media influencer.
Unconfirmed reports had earlier said that during the course of her prolonged questioning by the NCB ahead of her arrest on September 8, actress Rhea Chakraborty had reportedly told the investigators that actress Sara Ali Khan and Rakul Preet, designer Simone Khambatta, Sushant's friend and former manager Rohini Iyer and filmmaker Mukesh Chhabra consumed narcotics substances.
However, Rhea – after her arrest – Rhea has retracted her statement.
Meanwhile, the questioning of the Jaya Saha by the NCB should be seen in the context of the WhatsApp chats recovered by the ED.
In one of the chats between Rhea and Gaurav Arya who is allegedly a drug dealer, Rhea writes: “In case we speak about hard drugs, I haven’t been doing too much. Tried MDMA once”. In another message sent to Gaurav Arya, she asks: “You have MD?”
One message sent to her by one Jaya Saha on November 25 last year says, “Use 4 drops in coffee, tea or water and let him sip it. Give it 30-40 minutes for it to kick in.” Then, there emerges a message in a chat between Rhea & Jaya Saha: “I have asked him to coordinate with Shruti (Modi) & reach it up”. In yet another message, Rhea writes to Jaya Saha “Thank you so much” Reply from Jaya: “No problem bro, hope it helps”.
In the first chat message, Miranda writes to Rhea” “Hi Rhea, the stuff is almost over”. In the next message, Jaya Saha tells Rhea: ‘Use 4 drops in tea, let him sip it …. Give it 30-40 mins to kick in’. In the seventh and last accessed chat message, Miranda writes to Rhea: “‘Should we take it from Showik’s friend? But he has just hash & bud’,
The WA chat messages hint at the fact that Rhea was allegedly procuring drugs for use. The one message sent to Rhea by Jaya Saha on November 25 last year had indirectly hinted that she was allegedly mixing the drug in coffee, tea or water and giving it to Sushant.
