Nearly three months after his arrest in connection with Sushant Singh Rajpuit death-related drug case, Showik Chakraborty - the brother of Bollywood actress Rhea Chakraborty, was granted bail by the Special Narcotics Drugs and Psychotropic Substances (NDPS) Act Court here on Wednesday.
Special NDPS court judge G B Gurao granted bail to him on a personal bond of Rs 50,000.
Showik (24) had been arrested along with late actor Sushant Singh Rajput’s house manager Samuel Miranda on September 4. His actress-sister Rhea was arrested in connection with the Sushant death-related drug case on September 8. While Rhea was granted bail by the Bombay High Court on October 7, Showik was denied bail by the bail.
In a fresh bail application filed on Showik’s behalf before the NDPS court, his lawyer Satish Maneshinde had said that no drug was recovered from his client's possession and that the NCB’s only evidence against his client was using the statements of co-accused as the evidence.
Maneshinde had cited a recent Supreme Court ruling which said that the statements of the accused recorded under Section 67 of the Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances (NDPS) Act by the NCB officials (who were considered “police officers”) could not be considered confessions He had told the court that in the light of the SC ruling there was no reason to keep his client behind the bar.
He has claimed that in light of the ruling, there is no reason to keep him behind bars.
The NCB, which is investigating the various drug angles linked to the death of the late actor, had alleged that Rhea and her brother Showik used facilitate drug deliveries and payment through credit cards, cash and other payment gateways. At one stage, the NCB had accused Rhea and Showik of being “active members of a drug syndicate” and
financing drugs for use by Sushant.
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.
Having registered a case of Accidental Death Report (ADR) in connection with Sushant’s death, the Bandra police had collected all documents and pieces of evidence, including autopsy and forensic reports and recorded 56 statements as part of the investigations carried out by it under section 174 of Cr PC. After substantial investigations, the Mumbai police had inferred Sushant’s death was a case of “suicide”.
However, in the third week of August, the Supreme Court transferred the investigations in the case to the CBI. In crucial forensic report submitted to the CBI last week, the AIIMS -- which studied Sushant’s autopsy report, the injury pattern on Sushant’s body and correlated it with circumstantial evidence and also examined the preserved viscera – ruled out the possibility of a “murder” and said that it was a clear case of “suicide”.
On its part, the NCB had on August 26 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.
More than twenty 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, two days after it registered a case suo moto.
As part of the investigations, the NCB had earlier questioned Bollywood’s prominent actresses Deepika Padukone, Sara Ali Khan, Shraddha Kapoor and Rakul Preet Singh.