A day after his arrest in the Sushant Singh Rajput death-related drug case, a Mumbai holiday court on Sunday remanded Kshitij Ravi Prasad, a former executive of Karan Johar’s Dharma Productions, in the Narcotics Control Bureau (NCB) till October 3.
Amid an allegation by Advocate Satish Maneshinde, the lawyer of Kshitij, that the NCB “is bent upon falsely implicating Karan Johar or some top officers of Dharma Productions”, Metropolitan Magistrate V J Dongre agreed with the investigation agency’s plea and said that “the custodial interrogation of the present accused (Kshitij) is justifiable to reveal the truth”.
In his order remanding Kshitij in NCB custody till October 3, Magistrate Dongre said: “It further reveals from the remand papers that the present accused (Kshitij) has taken the delivery of Ganja from the accused Karamjeet (Singh) and his associate who are directly connected with (late Sushant’s house manager) Samuel Miranda. From the above facts, the link of the present accused seems to be connected with the present crime in which other accused (have already been) arrested”.
“So considering the serious nature of the offence in which several accused have already been arrested, I think the detailed custodial interrogation of the present accused ( Kshitij) is justifiable to reveal the truth. Therefore the accused is remanded to the custody of the NCB till 03.10.2020,” the Magistrate stated, as he directed the NCB to produce Kshitij before the Special court at the next hearing.
In its remand application, the NCB remand application linked Kshitij’s arrest with the Sushat Singh Raiput-death related drug case and Karamjeet Singh was arrested on the statements by the arrested accused actress Rhea chakraborty and her brother Showik.
According to the NCB, the Kshitij’s house was searched on September 25 and “one roll joint believed to the remains of smoked Ganja joint was found that certain documents and gadgets were taken for further investigation”. “On the basis of a voluntary statement made by him” that he had procured hashish from accused Ankush Arneja, Kshitij was arrested.
In a 7-page remand application, the NCB Joint Intelligence Officer Murari Lal said that Sanket Patel, a peddler who had been arrested earlier, had supplied Ganja to Kshtij on the orders of another co-accused Karamjeet Singh Anand.
Patel, who is currently on bail, admitted that “on the instructions of accused Karamjeet”, he had delivered the Ganja to Prasad outside his home in Adani Building, Andheri west, 12 times between May-July 2020.
For each consignment of 50 gms, Prasad paid him Rs. 3,500 – coming to a total of 600 gms Ganja worth Rs.42,000 in that period. “On the basis of his voluntary statement and alleged involvement in dealing of illicit drugs, accused Sanket Hukum Chand Patel was placed under arrest. Presently he is on bail,” the remand application said.
During the search at Karmjeet’s residence, the NCB recovered 17 grams of Ganja, 4grams of Charas and Rs 6 lakh in cash.
In a statement given to the NCB, Karmjeet has admitted that he had supplied contraband to Samuel Miranda several times. In a significant disclosure, Karmajeet has told the NCB that he was linked to late Sushant, accused Rhea and her brother Showik in connection with supply of contraband and sometimes received payment by cash/Google pay. Based on his confession and alleged links with drug deals, Karmjeet was arrested and is currently in judicial custody.
The NCB told the court that Kshijit was indirectly connected with Anuj Keshwani – one of the earliest arrests made by the NCB - from whom commercial quantities of narcotics was seized.
With Kshitij’s arrest, the total number of persons arrested in connection with the Sushant death-related drug case has gone up to 20. Those arrested so far comprised: actress Rhea Chakraborty, her brother Showik Chakraborty, Abbas Lakhani, Karan Arora, Zaid Vilatra, Abdul Basit Parihar, Samuel Miranda, Dipesh Sawant, Kaizan Ebrahim, Anuj Keswani, Ankush Arneja, Karamjeet Singh Anand, Sanket Pat+el, Sandeep Gupta, Aftab Ansari, Dwyane Fernandes, Suryadeep Malhotra, Chris Costa, Rahil Vishram and lastly Kshitij Prasad.
While some of them are in NCB custody, others are in judicial custody. Three or four of them are currently on bail.
Meanwhile, appearing for Kshitj, advocate Satish Maneshinde alleged that the NCB had “harassed, blackmailed”, “even given a third degree treatment” to elicit statements from his client (Kshitij).
Maneshinde said that the team that raided Kshitij’s house did not find anything except “the end bit of a stale and dry cigarette butt” in the balcony. He told the court that the NCB team began insisting it was a ganja joint even though there was nothing to suggest that and even drew up a panchnama to that effect despite his protests. “Upon his wife’s insistence, the word ‘believed’ to be a ganja joint was inserted in the panchnama,” Maneshinde said.
Maneshinde alleged that his client (Kshitij) was categorically informed by key investigating officer in the presence of several other officers, that since he was associated with Dharma Productions, they would let him off if he implicated either Karan Johar, Somel Mishra , Rakhi, Apoorva, Neeraj or Rahil falsely alleging that they consumed drugs. “Kshitij refused to comply with this despite the pressure being mounted on him as he did not know any of these people personally and did not wish to falsely implicate anyone,” he said.
“It can be seen from the remand application and the statement of Kshitij Prasad that NCB is bent upon falsely implicating KJo or some top officers of Dharma Productions,” Maneshinde alleged.