Sushant Singh Rajput death case: NCB gets 14-day judicial custody of Rhea Chakraborty

After three days of questioning, Rhea Chakraborty was remanded to 14-day judicial custody on Tuesday after being arrested by the Narcotics Control Bureau (NCB) in a drugs case linked to the death of Bollywood actor Sushant Singh Rajput. She will remain in custody till September 22.

Her lawyer will approach the sessions court on September 9. Rhea’s bail application was dismissed on Tuesday. She will go to jail on September 9 at 10 am.

The sections of the NDPS (Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances) Act invoked against her include 8(c) (sale, possession or manufacture of banned drugs), 20(b) (ii) (possession or use of a small quantity of banned drugs), as per her lawyers. “Rhea has been arrested under sections 27A, 21, 22, 29 and 28 of NDPS,” said K P S Malhotra, Deputy Director of NCB.

After the arrest, she was taken for medical tests including COVID-19 test to the civic-run Sion hospital in Central Mumbai. Before leaving for the hospital in a vehicle with NCB officials, the actor, clad in black, waved at media persons. She was accompanied by a woman police official too.

It has been learnt that Rhea confessed before the NCB that she used to smoke cigarettes filled with marijuana (ganja). Rhea told the NCB officials during the questioning that she used to smoke a drugs-filled cigarette with late star Sushant Singh Rajput. Rhea also claimed that Sushant was consuming drugs since 2016.

At the hospital, her antigen test for COVID-19 came out negative, officials said. She was then taken to the NCB office around 7.15 pm, where she was to be produced before the court through video conferencing.

Speaking to media persons, Mutha Ashok Jain, NCB Deputy Director-General, South West region, said the central agency had enough evidence to arrest her. 

Earlier the NCB had arrested her brother Showik Chakraborty, Sushant Singh Rajput’s manager Samuel Miranda and his domestic help Dipesh Sawant in the case.

Rhea Chakraborty was recently interrogated by the CBI probe team as she is the main accused in the abetment of suicide case filed by Rajput’s father, and also by the Enforcement Directorate in a money laundering case. She has denied all the allegations many times.

Various angles surrounding the death of Sushant are being probed by three federal agencies, including the ED and the CBI.

Meanwhile, the Mumbai Police have registered an FIR against actor Sushant Singh Rajput’s sisters and others for abetment to suicide and criminal conspiracy by prescribing him medicines banned under the Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances (NDPS) Act. The case was registered after the actor’s girlfriend Rhea Chakraborty claimed they prescribed drugs to him without consultation.

An offence has been registered against Sushant’s sisters Priyanka Singh and Meetu Singh, Delhi-based doctor Tarun Kumar and others. 

Rhea in her complaint claimed these persons hatched a conspiracy and obtained false prescription on the letterhead of a government hospital for banned medicines and administered the same to the actor without supervising doses and quantity.

Sushant Singh Rajput was found dead at his Bandra residence on June 14.