Sushant Singh probe: Rhea quizzed for six hours by Narcotics Control Bureau

The Narcotics Control Bureau (NCB), which is looking into allegations of drug use by the late actor Sushant Singh Rajput and his actor-girlfriend Rhea Chakraborty, questioned Rhea for nearly six hours on Sunday. Rhea was allowed to leave the NCB office around 6.15pm. Meanwhile, NCB arrested ninth person, Khar resident Anuj Keshwani, in the case on Sunday.

Rajput was found dead in his Bandra home on June 14, leading to doubts about whether it was a suicide. His father, KK Singh, filed an FIR with the Bihar Police, alleging abetment and suspicious money transfers. The arrests of two drug peddlers on a specific input led NCB to Rhea’s brother Showik, bringing in the drug angle. Sameer Wankhede, zonal director of NCB, said, “The investigation has not been completed due to her late arrival. We will summon her again tomorrow and the investigation will continue.”

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Rhea’s advocate and senior counsel Satish Maneshinde said, “Rhea is ready for arrest as this is a witch hunt and if loving someone is a crime, she will face the consequences of her love. Being innocent, she has not approached any court for anticipatory bail in all the cases foisted by Bihar Police, now with CBI, ED and NCB.”

Meanwhile, Keshwani was arrested for allegedly supplying drugs to Kaizan Ebrahim, who was arrested on Friday. “During interrogation, Ebrahim confessed that he used to buy drugs from Keshwani,” said KPS Malhotra, deputy director of NCB.

In the search at Keshwani’s residence, officials seized 590gm of hashish, 0.64gm of LSD sheets, 304gm of marijuana, including imported marijuana joints and capsules, and ₹1,85,200 and 5000 Indonesian rupiah. “The quantity can be termed commercial under the NDPS Act,” said an official.

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Earlier in the day, NCB produced Rajput’s domestic help Dipesh Sawant, who was arrested on Saturday, before a magistrate’s court. He has been remanded in NCB custody till September 9. NCB on Friday arrested Showik, Rajput’s house manager Samuel Miranda, and two Bandra residents and drug peddlers – Abdel Basit Parihar, 23, and Ebrahim. The other three arrested for drug peddling are Zaid Vilatra, 20 (arrested on Thursday), Abbas Lakhani, and Karan Arora (arrested on August 27-28). NCB officials told the court they wanted Sawant’s custody to confront him with other suspects, including Showik, Miranda and Vilatra.

According to NCB officers, on March 17, on Showik’s instructions, Sawant went with Miranda to get 5gm of marijuana from Vilatra. On April 17, Rhea and Showik instructed Sawant to receive a delivery of 10gm of hashish from Ebrahim near Mont Blanc building, said NCB officials. On May 1, Showik had reportedly asked him to receive marijuana from a person named Dwayne, and had received 50gm of marijuana from Dwayne on May 2. NCB officers claimed that in the first week of June, Sawant received 100gm of marijuana from a delivery boy, Rishikesh Pawar. However, Sawant’s lawyer Rajendra Rathod argued that he was just an employee of Rajput.