Mumbai cops turn plaint against SSR sis, doc into FIR, transfer it to CBI
At the end of 19-long hours of grilling carried out during a span of three days, the Narcotics Control Bureau (NCB) on Tuesday arrested actress Rhea Chakraborty in connection with the Sushant Singh Rajput death case, even as the Mumbai Police converted a complaint filed by her against the late actor’s sisters Priyanka, Meetu Singh and New Delhi-based Dr Tarun Kumar into an FIR and transferred the case to the CBI.
Rhea was produced via video-conferencing before a city court, which rejected her bail application and remanded in judicial custody for 14 days, till September 22. She would be lodged in the Byaculla Women jail.
Rhea’s arrest appeared to be a fait accompli, coming as it did in the wake of what appeared to be orchestrated leaks from the investigating agency that she had reportedly admitted that she had procured drugs for Sushant through her currently arrested brother Showik Chakraborty, that she had acknowledged that she knew about Samuel purchasing drugs for the actor from drug peddler Zaid Vilatra and that she had accepted that she had accepted drug-related WhatsApp chats between her and others.
Rhea, who had been questioned for six hours on Sunday and grilled for eight hours on Monday, arrived at the NCB’s office at Ballard Pier in south Mumbai at 10.30 am for the third day of questioning in a T-shirt that read “Roses are red, violets are blue, let’s smash the patriarchy, me and you”. The 28-year-old actress was placed by the NCB under arrest at 3.30 pm, exactly five hours later.
Confirming the arrest, NCB deputy director KPS Malhotra said, “Rhea Chakraborty has been arrested and due process of informing the family has been completed”.
Rhea is the tenth accused to have been arrested in connection with a drug case linked to the death of actor Sushant Singh Rajput, who was found dead in his closed room of his sixth floor duplex flat at Mont Blanc building at Bandra’s Carter Road in north-west Mumbai, on June 14.
Besides Rhea’s brother Showik, eight other arrested accused in the case are: Abbas Lakhani, Karan Arora, Zaid Vilatra, Abdel Basit Parihar, Anuj Keswani, Kaizan Ibrahim, Samuel Miranda and Dipesh Sawant.
Rhea is said to be arrested for purchase, possession and use of drugs, under Section 8(c), 20(b), 27(a), 28 and 29 of NDPS Act.
Rhea is understood to have been booked under Section 8(c), 20(b), 27(a), 28 and 29 of Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances Act, 1985 on charges of purchase, possession and use of drugs.
In a related development, the Bandra Police converted Rhea’s complaint registered on Monday against the later actor’s sisters Priyanka Singh, Meetu Singh and a New Delhi-based doctor Dr Tarun Kumar of Ram Manohar Lohia Hospital for alleged forgery and violation of Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances Act, 1985 and Tele Medicine Practice Guidelines, 2020, into an FIR on Tuesday. The Bandra police immediately transferred the case to the CBI for investigations along with the probe into the FIR filed by Sushant’s father with the Patna police.
“In line with the complaint of Rhea Chakraborty, a case has been registered at Bandra Police Station, Mumbai Cr. No. 576/2020 under sections 420, 464, 465, 466, 468, 474, 306, 120B, 34 IPC and read with sections 8(c), 21, 22(A), 29 of NDPS Act. In line with orders of the Supreme Court of India, the case is duly transferred to CBI for further investigation,” a senior officer attached to the Bandra police said.
Dubbing client Rhea’s arrest as a “travesty of justice”, her lawyer Satish Maneshinde expressed his outrage saying that the Central investigating agencies were “hounding a single woman just because she was in love with a drug addict who was suffering from mental health issues”.
“Travesty of Justice! Three Central agencies are hounding a single Woman, just because she was in love with a drug addict and was suffering from mental health issues for several years under the care of five leading psychiatrists in Mumbai, who ended up committing suicide due to consumption of illegally administered medicines and used drugs,” Maneshinde said.
The NCB’s case is based on 59 grams of curated marijuana seized from alleged drug peddlers Abbas Lakhani and Karan Arora who were arrested earlier, and have now been granted bail.
More seizures were made from Anuj Keshvani based on the disclosure from Kaizan Ibrahim, who according to the NCB is another drug peddler who supplied marijuana to Showik Chakraborty and Samuel Miranda through Abdel Basit Parihar.
Keshwani, whose role has made the investigations more complicated, is under examination for questioning. In a statement detailing the drugs seized from Keshwani, the NCB has said: “In continuation of operations against the drug syndicate, a raid was conducted in Mumbai by Mumbai Zonal Unit, NCB. The following drugs were seized: 590 grams of hashish, 0.64 gm of LSD sheets, 304 gms of marijuana, including imported marijuana joints and capsules, Rs 1,85,200 in cash and 5,000 Indonesian Rupian”.
