Manas Dasgupta
MUMBAI, Sep 8: After grilling her for three days, the Bollywood actress Rhea Chakraborty was finally placed under arrest on Tuesday by the Narcotics Control Bureau. She is the 10th person to be arrested by the central agency in a drugs case, an offshoot linked to the probe into the death of Sushant Singh Rajput.
“Rhea Chakraborty has been arrested and due process of informing the family has been completed,” announced NCB deputy director KPS Malhotra after the 28-year-old’s questioning for the third consecutive day. She was at the NCB’s south Mumbai office for six hours on Sunday, and eight hours on Monday. The actor reached the bureau office at 10.30 am on Tuesday. The formal announcement of her arrest was made five hours later. An NCB official said she would be produced before a magistrate via video conferencing at 7.30 pm this evening but the NCB sources said they were unlikely to seek her remand and request for sending her to the judicial custody paving the way for her to seek bail.
Rhea was soon afterwards taken to the Sion hospital for the customary medical check-up and Corona test after which she would be brought back to the NCB office for producing before the magistrate. Her brother Showik and deceased Sushant Singh’s house manager Samuel Miranda are already in the NCB custody.
Rhea Chakraborty’s family and lawyer had earlier indicated that they anticipated the actor’s arrest after her brother, Showik, was arrested on Friday.
“Congratulations India, you have arrested my son, I’m sure next on the line is my daughter and I don’t know who is next thereafter,” Rhea’s father, Lt Col Indrajit Chakraborty (retd) said in an emotional statement over the weekend.
“Rhea Chakraborty is ready for arrest as it’s a witch-hunt,” her lawyer Satish Maneshinde said before she was first questioned by the NCB on Sunday. As the NCB formally placed her under arrest, Maneshinde described it as “travesty of justice.
“Three central agencies hounding a single woman, just because she was in love with a drug addict 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 is one of the three central agencies that moved in after a controversy erupted over the death of actor Sushant Singh Rajput’s death in his Bandra flat on June 14, the Central Bureau of Investigation and the federal financial crimes agency Enforcement Directorate are the other two engaged in investigating Sushant’s death after his body was reportedly found hanging from the ceiling fan but without any suicide note.
Sushant Singh Rajput’s autopsy had indicated that he died due to choking and possibly committed suicide. His father, however, filed an FIR against Rhea Chakraborty in Patna, accusing her of driving his son to suicide and misappropriating his money. Chakraborty has denied the allegations on several occasions.
Sushant Rajput’s sister Shweta Singh Kirti welcomed news of Rhea Chakraborty’s arrest. “GodIsWithUs,” she tweeted. The Bihar police chief Gupteshwar Pandey, who had initiated the criminal case against Rhea Chakraborty before handing over the case to the CBI, said the investigations had exposed the actor. In a tweet he said he had no reason to feel happy over her arrest but the NCB action proved that the inquiry by the Bihar police was in the right direction but the Mumbai police did not allow it to proceed.
“Rhea Chakraborty is totally exposed in the sense that she had a connection with drug peddlers. This has been established. That is why she has been arrested,” Pandey said.
The NCB registered its case after it came across WhatsApp chats retrieved from Rhea Chakraborty’s phone about an alleged conversation about procuring drugs between her and Samuel Miranda.
According to NCB officers, Rhea’s brother Showik instructed Sushant Singh’s domestic help Dipesh Sawant and Samuel Miranda to get 5gm of marijuana from a peddler Zaid Vilatra on March 17.
On April 17, Rhea and Dipesh Showik instructed Sawant to receive a delivery of 10gm of hashish from Kaizen Ebrahim near Mont Blanc building, said NCB officials. On May 1, Showik allegedly told Sawant to receive marijuana from a person named Dwayne, and had received 50gm of marijuana from Dwayne on May 2.
Five people, who were accused of supplying or arranging drugs to Sushant Singh Rajput’s employees on various occasions, were the first ones to be arrested before the NCB caught Sushant Singh Rajput’s employees, house manager Samuel Miranda, domestic help Dinesh Sawant and Rhea’s brother Showik. On Sunday, the NCB had arrested Anuj Keshwani on charges that he had supplied drugs to peddler, Kaizen Ebrahim.
