Bombay High Court reserves order on Rhea Chakraborty, Showik’s bail pleas
Rhea Chakraborty and her brother Showik have been arrested by the Narcotics Control Bureau (NCB) in a drug case linked to late actor Sushant Singh Rajput’s death
The Bombay High Court on Tuesday reserved the order on the bail applications filed by the two prime accused, actress Rhea Chakraborty and her brother Showik Chakraborty. Both Rhea and Showik have been arrested by the Narcotics Control Bureau (NCB) in a drug case linked to late actor Sushant Singh Rajput’s death.
A Single Judge Bench of Justice SV Kotwal was hearing the bail applications.
Rhea Chakraborty’s earlier application for bail was rejected by a special NDPS court and she was remanded to 14-day judicial custody. That custody was later extended till October 6.
The other accused whose bail applications were rejected earlier are Abdul Basit, Zaid Vilatra, Dipesh Sawant and Samuel Miranda.
In the last hearing, Rhea's lawyer Satish Maneshinde argued for the bail applicants that the NCB has no jurisdiction to handle the case after the apex court tasked the Central Bureau of Investigation to investigate cases concerning the death of Sushant.
In its reply, the NCB has asserted that the top court has only directed the transfer of any probe concerning the death of the actor to the CBI.
28-year-old Rhea Chakraborty was arrested by the federal agency on 9 September. As per the NCB, Rhea and Showik financed and arranged drugs for Sushant Singh Rajput at his instructions.
Rhea, Showik 'active members of drug syndicate'
The NCB has opposed the bail pleas filed by actress Rhea and her brother Showik in the Bombay HC following their arrest in the drugs case.
The siblings were "active members of a drug syndicate that was connected with high society personalities and drug suppliers", the NCB said in an affidavit filed before the HC on 28 September.
Further, the NCB said both Rhea and her brother had "abetted and financed" drug transactions.
Therefore, the agency had booked them under the stringent section 27A of the Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances (NDPS) Act, it said in the affidavit.
Section 27A provides punishment for up to 10 years for financing drug trafficking and harbouring offenders, and also carries a bar on grant of bail.
On previous hearings, the actress and her brother opposed the application of the above section in their case.
With agency inputs
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First Published:29 Sep 2020, 07:39 PM IST
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