Continuing its crackdown on the drug peddlers and dealers, the Mumbai Zone officials of the Narcotics Control Bureau (NCB) conducted raids in Mumbai and Goa on Friday night and Saturday.

Though a senior NCB official said that the raids were not directly linked to the drug case registered in connection with the death of actor Sushant Singh Rajput, official sources said that its teams had conducted the raids on Friday night and Saturday based on “specific information” thrown up during the investigations in the Sushant death-related drug case.   

During the course of her prolonged questioning by the NCB ahead of her arrest on September 8, actress Rhea Chakraborty had reportedly told the investigators that actress Sara Ali Khan and Rakul Preet, designer Simone Khambatta, Sushant’s friend and former manager Rohini Iyer and filmmaker Mukesh Chhabra consumed narcotics substances. However, Rhea has retracted the confessional statement recorded by the NCB ahead of her arrest.

Unconfirmed reports said that the NCB might summon anywhere from “15 to 25” Bollywood personalities for questioning over the reports about their allegedly procuring and consuming narcotic drugs.

Sources said that the NCB officials had conducted the raids on the basis of specific information provided by alleged drug peddler Anuj Keswani who was arrested by the NCB after Kaizan Ebrahim disclosed his name. Kaizan Ebrahim had reportedly  told the investigators that Anuj Keshwani was his supplier of narcotic drugs.

Keswani and Kaizan are among the ten persons arrested in connection with the drug case registered by the NCB. The other arrested accused in the case are Rhea Chakraborty, her brother Showik, Abbas Lakhani, Karan Arora, Zaid Vilatra, Abdel Basit Parihar, Samuel Miranda and Dipesh Sawant.

During the 19-long hours of grilling carried out during a span of three days, Rhea 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.

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”. The quantity of LSD that has been recovered is commercial quantity under NDPS Act.

Rhea — whose brother Showik was arrested along with late actor’s house manager Samuel Miranda by the NCB on September 5 in connection with the Sushant death-related drug case – had earlier been questioned by the NCB her about the whatsApp exchanges between Rhea and others that the Enforcement Directorate (ED) had shared with the CBI and NCB alleging “procuring and usage” of drugs.

It was on the basis of this WhatsApp message trail that the ED had joined the investigations on August 26 into the allegations that Sushant’s girlfriend  Rhea used to procure banned drugs illegally from dealers and administer them to Sushant, who was found dead in his rented duplex flat in Mount Blanc at Bandra’s Carter Road in  north-west Mumbai on June 14.

On her part, Rhea had earlier denied consuming drugs and said that she was prepared for a drug test anytime. She, however, admitted that Sushant used to take marijuana and despite her efforts, she could not control him.