On the 12th day of its investigations in the Sushant Singh Rajput death case, the CBI on Tuesday questioned actress Rhea Chakraborty’s parents Indrajit and Indrajit Chakraborty extensively, even as the Enforcement
Directorate (ED) grilled hotelier from Goa Guarav Arya in the Sushant case-linked money laundering case.
On a day when the Narcotics Control Bureau (NCB) — in an apparently Sushant death case-triggered raids conducted in Mumbai and Delhi — seized 3.5 kg Marijuana (bud) worth `1.75 crore, the CBI subjected Rhea’s parents to questioning for more than eight hours.
Rhea’s parents reached the Defence Research & Development Organisation (DRDO)’s guest house at 11 am at Santa Cruz’s Kalina area in north-west Mumbai, where the CBI investigators have been camping ever since their arrival from Mumbai on August 20. After extensive questioning that went well beyond 7 pm, Indrajit and Indrajit Chakraborty returned from the DRDO guest house to their nearby Juhu residence.
However, the CBI did not question Rhea and her brother Showik on Tuesday. Till Monday, Rhea had been questioned for four consecutive days involving 36 hours, while her brother Showik had been grilled for five consecutive days.
In simultaneous operations against the trafficked bud (curated marijuana) sourced from abroad carried out in Mumbai and Delhi, the NCB seized 3.5 kg of bud “having high street value in Mumbai and the best quality is sold at the price of `5,000 per gram”.
“The seizure made in Delhi was destined for Mumbai. The seizure made in Mumbai was sourced from Canada and destined for Goa... The operations in Mumbai had links with Goa and one person namely F Ahmed, a resident of Calangute, Goa has been intercepted, who works in a prominent resort as driver,” a senior NCB official said.
Tuesday was the first occasion when Rhea’s parents were questioned in connection with the actor’s death case. Indrajit and Sandhya Chakraborty are among the persons named along with Rhea, her brother Showik, Sushaant’s ex-manager Shruti Manager Shruti Modi and others in an FIR lodged by the actor’s father KK Singh with Rajiv Nagar police station in Patna. It was on the basis of this FIR that the Supreme Court ordered the transfer of the Rajput death case to the CBI.
Rhea, her parents, her brother and others have been booked as part of this FIR under sections 341 (wrongful restraint) 342 (wrongful confinement, 380 (theft), 406 (breach of trust), 420 (cheating), 306 (abetting suicide) and 120-B (conspiracy) of the Indian Penal Code.
Apart from accusing Rhea, her parents, brother and others of having abetted Rajput’s alleged suicide, the actor’s father has alleged that his son’s bank account transaction history showed he had Rs 17 crore in one account, of which Rs 15 crore had been transferred to an account that had nothing to do with him. He has also alleged that Rhea had left him and took away his treatment papers, laptop, credit cards, jewellery and cash. He has also said his son did not suffer from mental health issues before his relationship with Rhea.
The CBI is understood to have questioned Rhea’s parents about their relations with the late actor, whether they were reconciled to the fact that their daughter was Rajput’s live-in mate, what all things that their daughter had revealed to them about her relationship with the actor, whether their daughter had received money from Sushant and whether they knew about the actor’s mental condition in the run-up to his death.
Meanwhile, Goa-based hotelier Gaurav Arya, whose name has figured in drug-related issues involving Rajput, Rhea and others, was questioned by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) for the second consecutive day in an alleged money laundering case-linked to Rajput’s death. Arya had been questioned by the ED for nine hours on Monday
The ED recorded his statement under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) in connection with a registered by it linking it to Rhea and others.
On his part, Arya had told the ED that he had never met Rajput and he had met Rhea once in 2017. He had also claimed he has no connection with the Rajput case.
Simultaneously, the NCB is investigating Arya in connection with the allegations that he had supplied drugs to Rhea for use by Rajput.
It may be recalled that the ED, which has registered a money laundering in Rajput’s death case, had retrieved WhatsApp messages Rhea had with others in which alleged procurement and usage of drugs like MDMA, marijuana, LSD and Cannabidiol had figured. The ED had shared the WhatsApp messages to the CBI and Narcotics Control Bureau (NCB), prompting the latter to register a case under sections 20, 22, 27 and 29 of the Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances) Act and booked Rhea Chakraborty, her brother Showik Chakraborty and others under it.
In the messages accessed by the media last week, Rhea talks about drugs. In a chat between Rhea 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?”.
One message sent to her by one Jaya Saha on November 25 last year says, “Use 4 drops in coffee, tea or water and let him sip it. Give it 30-40 minutes for it to kick in.” Then, there emerges a message in a chat between Rhea & Jaya, “I have asked him to coordinate with Shruti (Modi) & reach it up”. In yet another message, Rhea writes to Jaya, “Thank you so much” Reply from Jaya: “No problem bro, hope it helps.”
In the first chat message, Miranda writes to Rhea” “Hi Rhea, the stuff is almost over”. In the next message, Jaya tells Rhea, “Use 4 drops in tea, let him sip it …. Give it 30-40 mins to kick in’. In the seventh and last accessed chat message, Miranda writes to Rhea: “Should we take it from Showik’s friend? But he has just a hash & bud.”
The WA chat messages hint at the fact that Rhea was allegedly procuring drugs for use.
Meanwhile, the NCB seized 3.5 kgs of buds having high street value in Mumbai and the best quality is sold at the price of Rs 5,000 per gram. While the seizure made in Delhi was destined for Mumbai, the seized drug was sourced from Canada and destined for Goa.
“NCB has conducted an intensive operation against the illegal import of curated marijuana (bud), which is primarily sourced from the USA and Canada and has huge market demand in Mumbai. In all, 3.5 kg of bud has been seized from foreign post offices based on the specific inputs,” an NCB statement said.
“The widespread use and demand of bud in Mumbai region has jacked up the prices in the grey market and it has huge pecuniary gains in the trafficking. The sourcing of the bud is primarily through the Darknet, which gives the layers of the anonymity to the buyers and sellers. The economic transactions in these types of international drug trafficking is based on the cryptocurrency dealings,” the statement said.
According to the NCB, the operations in Mumbai had found the links with Goa and one person namely F Ahmed r/o Calangute, Goa has been intercepted, who works in a prominent resort as driver. It has further been learnt that F. Ahmed was supplying the bud to some prominent receivers at Bangalore, who have linkages with Page 3 celebrities.
“In the operations at Delhi, the source of the bud was found to be the USA. The consignee of the contraband was based in Delhi, but was misguided by his contact at Mumbai that some legal stuff is being procured from the USA and the same was further to be collected by Mumbai based persons, whose search is underway,” the statement said.