Sushant Singh Rajput didn’t need me to ‘finance’ drug purchases, Rhea Chakraborty tells high court - Hindustan Times

Refuting the Narcotics Control Bureau’s (NCB) allegation that actor Rhea Chakraborty, along with her brother Showik, “financed” the drug purchases of her boyfriend and late actor Sushant Singh Rajput, her lawyer Satish Maneshinde told the Bombay high court (HC) on Tuesday that “Rajput was in no dearth of funds”.

Responding to NCB’s accusation that Chakraborty was part of a drug syndicate, Maneshinde said the allegations were merely on the basis of a solitary incident of March 17, when she gave her credit card to Miranda, who withdrew Rs10,000 using it and purchased contraband for the deceased actor.

He maintained that no amount was paid directly using Chakraborty’s card to any of the alleged peddlers for procuring drugs and so she can’t be said to be associated with any drug ring.

It is an admitted fact that Rajput used to consume drugs even before Chakraborty became acquainted with him in April 2019, and two of Rajput’s co-stars, Sara Ali Khan and Shraddha Kapoor, have reportedly told NCB that he was consuming drugs since long, he said.

Maneshinde said NCB’s reliance on recovery of commercial quantity of drugs from one Anuj Keshwani and then the claim that Chakraborty and Showik were part of a drug ring cannot be maintained as neither of them had any connection with the alleged drug supplier.

NCB had further alleged that Chakraborty had harboured Rajput who used to consume drugs.

Maintaining that all alleged transactions involve small quantities of drugs and therefore were bailable, Sayed said all five applicants before HC – Chakraborty, Showik, Miranda, Rajput staffer Dipesh Sawant and Parihar – were entitled to bail as a matter of right

Additional solicitor general Anil Singh, who opposed the bail applications on behalf of NCB, however, submitted that the applicants were under wrong assumption that all offences under the NDPS Act involving small quantity of drugs were bailable

Referring to recovery of commercial quantity of drugs from Anuj Keshwani, he said case of none of them can be separated from that of the others

Maneshinde had submitted that in the replies filed by NCB to the bail applications of Chakraborty and Showik before the special NDPS court, NCB had in clear terms said it was a fallout of the drug angle in Rajput case

“It is nobody’s case that Sushant Singh Rajput died due to drug abuse.”