Rhea Chakraborty linked to drugs supply racket in Bollywood, claims NCB
Darpan News Desk IANS, 13 Jul, 2022 04:31 PM
Mumbai, July 13 (IANS) In a startling development, the Narcotics Control Bureau (NCB) has claimed that actress Rhea Chakraborty and others were allegedly involved in a major criminal conspiracy to run a drugs racket, for Bollywood and other high society people.
In its draft charges filed before a Mumbai Special NDPS Court on Tuesday, the NCB has detailed how between March-December 2020, Rhea, her brother Showik and 34 others accused in the death case of the late Sushant Singh Rajput, were part of a plot to finance, procure, sell, transport and distribute drugs like Ganja, Charas, Cocaine, LSD to the high-profile end-users.
As part of the plot, from January-August 2020, Siddharth Pithani -- a friend of Rajput, found dead in his rented Bandra home on June 14, 2020 -- was in regular touch with the actor (Rajput) and his girlfriend Rhea, her brother Showik, domestic aides like Samuel Miranda, Dipesh Sawant and others to procure Ganja, as per the NCB draft charges.
The probe agency revealed how Pithani had used a private bank app of Rajput to source Ganja and other drugs from his bank account, describing them as 'puja samagri' (prayer materials) and accordingly abetted Rajput's extreme addiction to drugs.
The NCB contended that the actress' brother Showik Chakraborty was also allegedly linked with drug peddlers from whom he received packets on behalf of Rajput.
While Rhea was arrested in September 2020 and released on bail after almost a month in October 2020, Pithani was nabbed in May 2021 and released on bail last week, as part of the NCB's avowed probe to uproot what it termed athe drugs citadel Mumbai, especially in Bollywood'.
After hearing the arguments from both sides in the case, the Special NDPS Judge V.G. Raghuvanshi will decide on which of the 38 charges shall be framed against the 35 accused.
Actress Katrina Kaif, who has upped her own ante with her performances in films like "Bharat" and "Zero", says she is now keen on taking up roles that will give her the space and opportunity to invest, get her teeth into the character and explore it.
When he started off in Bollywood almost 30 years ago, all an actor needed to do was act. Now the scenario has changed. Actors are no longer just ‘actors. They are ‘products. They are ‘commodities that need to be ‘sold, feels Arshad Warsi.
