Nearly six months after it arrested Rhea Chakraborty and her brother Showik Chakraborty, the Narcotics Control Bureau (NCB) on Friday filed an 11,700-page chargesheet including annexures running 50,000 pages in digital format against them and 31 others in a drug case linked to the death of actor Sushant Kumar Rajput.
In a chargesheet filed before a Special NPDS court here, the NCB named 33 persons, including Rhea and her brother Showik, as accused. Of the accused, only eight are in judicial custody, while the rest — including Rhea — have been granted bail by the courts.
“The chargesheet names 33 accused and it contains statements of 200 witnesses. Nearly 12,000 pages in hard copy and about 50,000 pages in the digital format submitted in court today," the NCB said. It said further investigation in the matter was ongoing against known and unknown persons.
“During investigation, several seizures of various narcotics drugs and psychotropic substances, electronic gadgets and Indian as well as foreign currency were affected. Gadgets and mobile phones were analysed and the relevant incriminating evidence regarding the sale, purchase, procurement, consumption and possession of narcotics drugs were extracted. Drugs seized were sent for chemical examination,” the NCB said.
“The case was thoroughly investigated on the basis of seizures affected from the accused persons, voluntary disclosure statements, technical evidences i.e connectivity through call details, WhatsApp Chats, details of bank accounts/financial transactions and other oral and documentary evidences,” the NCB said.
“The NCB further said that due to ecological concerns, a large portion of the annexures have been submitted to the court in electronic form. On conclusion of further investigations, a supplementary chargesheet will be filed, “ the NCB added.
Among other things, the NCB charged that was instrumental in procuring and financing drugs and it had corroborated Rhea's financial transactions
The NCB said that in the chargesheet it had brought out links between the Showik and drug peddlers Basit Parihar and Zayed. The drug deliveries have been collaborated with Whatsapp chats and financial transactions.
A few days after her brother Showik was taken into custody, Rhea was arrested on September 8, 2020, in connection with the Sushant Singh death-related drug case registered in August last year.
It may be recalled that Bollywood actor Sushant Singh Rajput was found hanging from a ceiling fan in his closed room of his duplex flat at Mont Blanc building at Bandra’s Carter Road in north-west Mumbai on June 14.
On its part, the NCB had on August 26, 2020 registered a case under sections 20, 22, 27 and 29 of the Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances) Act in connection with the actor’s death and booked Rhea Chakraborty, her brother Showik Chakraborty and several others under it. Subsequently, the NCB registered one case into the alleged nexus between Bollywood and the drug mafia.
Thirty three persons — including Sushant’s girlfriend Rhea Chakraborty and her brother Showik — were arrested in connection with a case registered by the NCB on August 28, 2020.
Prior to her arrest, Rhea was questioned 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 Chakraborty used to procure banned drugs illegally from dealers and administer them to the late actor.
It may be recalled that the messages accessed by a few television channels on August 25-26,2020 Rhea talks about drugs and in a chat between her and Gaurav Arya who is allegedly a drug dealer, Rhea writes: “In case we speak about hard drugs, I haven’t been doing too much. Tried MDMA once”. In another message sent to Gaurav Arya, she asks: “You have MD?”.
In the first chat message, Miranda writes to Rhea “Hi Rhea, the stuff is almost over”. In the next message, Jaya Saha tells Rhea: ‘Use 4 drops in tea, let him sip it …. Give it 30-40 mins to kick in’. Then, there emerges a message in a chat between Rhea & Jaya Saha: “I have asked him to coordinate with Shruti (Modi) & reach it up”. In yet another message, Rhea writes to Jaya Saha “Thank you so much” Reply from Jaya: “No problem bro, hope it helps”.
The NCB had said that the WA chat messages hinted at the fact that Rhea was allegedly procuring drugs for use by the actor.
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.