The Narcotics Control Bureau (NCB) on Monday confirmed that the names of Bollywood actresses Sara Ali Khan, Rakul Preet Singh and designer Simone Khambatta had figured in the Sushant Singh Raput death-related drug case, even as a Mumbai court remanded the seven arrested drug peddlers either in the NCB or in judicial custody for varying periods.
Talking to media persons here, NCB’s deputy director (operations) KPS Malhotra said: “There has been an issue that whether the name of Sara, Simone and Rakul surfaced during the investigation…the answer to that is yes”.
However, Malhotra hastened to add that the NCB had not prepared any list of Bollywood personalities as had been reported in a section of the media. “There have been questions whether the NCB has prepared a list of 25 Bollywood personalities. The answer to that is no,” Malhotra said.
As many as 16 persons have so far been arrested in the Sushant Singh Raput death-related drug case registered by the NCB. Actress Rhea Chakraborty and her brother Showik are two of the arrested accused in the case.
A descendent of the Tagore and Pataudi families, Sara (25) is the daughter of actor Saif Ali Khan and his first wife Amrita Singh and grand-daughter of late Indian cricket captain MAK Pataudi and actor and former Censor Board chairperson Sharmila Tagore.
Sushant and Sara had worked together in the 2018 film Kedarnath, a Hindi romantic drama.
Rakul Preet (29) has acted in several Hindi, Tamil, Telugu and Kannada films, while Simone (29) is a fashion designer and social media influencer.
Unconfirmed reports had earlier said that 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.
Meanwhile, seven arrested drug peddlers and dealers – arrested by the NCB in the Sushant death-related drug case—were remanded in the NCB or judicial custody for varying periods by a Mumbai court on Monday.
While an arrested drug peddler Anuj Keswani, arrested by the Narcotics Control Bureau, was sent to judicial custody by the court till September 23, three others - Karamjeet Singh Anand, Dwayne Fernandes, and Ankush Anreja – who were arrested during the weekend, were remanded in NCB custody till September 23.
In addition, three others - Sanket Patel, Sandeep Gupta and Aftab Fateh Ansari – who were also arrested during the weekend --were sent to judicial custody till September 23.
Among the seven remanded in either NCB or judicial custody, Keswani was among the suspected drug peddlers who were arrested in the wake of the arrest of Rhea Chakraborty’s brother Showik early this month.
Alleged drug peddler Anuj Keswani 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 were among the ten persons initially 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 that led to her arrest on September 8, 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
However, Rhea – who is currently judicial custody -- has retracted the confessional statement recorded by the NCB ahead of her arrest.