Deepika arrives in Mumbai for NCB quizzing tomorrow

| | Mumbai
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Deepika arrives in Mumbai for NCB quizzing tomorrow

Friday, 25 September 2020 | TN RAGHUNATHA | Mumbai

Continuing  its investigations in the Sushant Singh Rajput death-related drug case and the expanded Bollywood-drug nexus case, the Narcotic Control Bureau (NCB) grilled Sushant’s ex-manager Shruti Modi and fashioner designer Simone Khambatta and scheduled the questioning of actress Rakul Preet Singh and Deepika Padkone’s manager Karishma Prakash for Friday and actress Deepika on Saturday.

Deepika arrived in Mumbai from Goa on Thursday night.

As a section of the electronic media carried on with their trial of the Bollywood personalities on issues relating to the Bollywood-drug nexus, the NCB grilled Shruti Modi for eight hours, while it questioned Simone for five hours.

“Today Simone Khambatta and Shruti Modi joined the investigation and statements in this regard have been recorded at NCB. Tomorrow Rakul and Karishma will be joining the investigation,” NCBs Deputy Director (Operations) KPS Malhotra said.

Sources said that the NCB had also called director and executive producer Kshitij Ravi Prasad of Karan Johar's Dharma Production for questioning on Friday. However, there was no formal confirmation from the NCB that it had indeed issued summons issued to Kshitij.

During Thursday’s questioning, Shruti Modi and Simone were grilled on the issues that had come to the fore during the grilling of Rhea Chakraborty and her brother Showik. 

The NCB will continue the same line of questioning when its investigators grill actress Rakul and Deepika’s Manager Karishma.

"Deepika has acknowledged the summons and had submitted for joining investigation on Saturday," Malhotra said.

At Saturday's questioning, the NCB  will record Deepika's statement under Section 67 in the Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances (NDPS) Act, 1985. The section 67 of the NDPS Act vests powers with the investigating agency "to call for information from any person for the purpose of satisfying himself whether there has been any contravention of the provisions of this Act, to require any person to produce or deliver any document or thing useful or relevant to the enquiry and to examine any person acquainted with the facts and circumstances of the case".

 Deepika will be questioned in the context of the information that surfaced during the questioning of actress-accused Rhea Chakraborty in the drug case. 

Karishma works with Jaya Saha, with whom Rhea Chakraborty had chatted about CBD oil, as a manager in Kwan talent management agency. During the questioning, the NCB had reportedly quizzed Jaya if she had any knowledge about Karishma procuring drugs for Deepika Padukone.

The NCB had retrieved Deepika's WhatsApp chats with Karishma in which the two were seen discussing drugs. Earlier, Jaya's chats with Rhea Chakraborty about CBD oil were also retrieved by NCB.

The NCB investigations have thrown up a whatsApp chat of 2017 between D (Deepika Padukone) and K (Karishma). In the chat, Deepika reportedly asks Karishna: "you have Maal?, Karishma responds saying: "Yes, but at home. I am at Bandra. Later Krishma tells Deepika that one Amit is bringing it to a high-end restaurant "koko" at Lower Parel. Deepika seeks to confirm if it is hash not weed.

 

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