The Narcotics Control Bureau has moved the Supreme Court challenging the Bombay High Court order granting bail to Rhea Chakraborty in cases registered against her under the Narcotics Drugs and Psychotropic Substances Act (NDPS Act). She was charged over procuring drugs to actor Sushant Singh Rajput.
A bench of Chief Justice SA Bobde and Justices AS Bopanna and V Ramasubramanian will hear the defence on March 18.
On October 7, 2020, the Bombay High Court had granted bail to Rhea after furnishing a bond of Rs one lakh. Rhea is among those 20 arrested by the NCB in connection with the drugs angle probe that was taken after the alleged death of Bollywood actor Sushant Singh Rajput. Rhea had spent 28 days in custody.
Rhea's counsel had contended that the NCB lacked jurisdiction to probe the matter given the Supreme Court order of August 19 directing to hand over all investigations in the Sushant case to the CBI, the offences under which the accused were nabbed by the NCB were bailable and the charges under the NDPS Act Section 217A against the accused did not have supporting evidence.
Rhea and her brother Showik Chakraborty and three others -- Abdel Basit Parihar, Samuel Miranda and Dipesh Sawant -- were accused of having facilitated the procurement of drugs for consumption by late actor Sushant Singh Rajput. They filed bail applications before the Bombay High Court after their bail plea was dismissed by a Special NDPS Court in Mumbai.
Among the conditions listed for Rhea's bail was depositing her passport with the NCB, reporting to the local police station daily for 10 days, not leaving Mumbai without informing the NCB, etc.
"The arrest and custody of Rhea were unwarranted and beyond the reach of the law. The hounding and witch hunt by three Central agencies -- the CBI, ED and NCB -- of Rhea should come to an end", Rhea's counsel had said then.
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Sushant’s death
The 34-year-old actor was found dead at his Bandra, Mumbai residence on June 14 last year that created shock across the country, with many blaming the film industry for mistreating him and several projects were snatched from Sushant. While Mumbai police had initially ruled his death as 'suicide by hanging', the investigation was countered by Rajput's family which alleged foul play in his death. The actor’s family alleged that Rhea Chakraborty, Rajput’s girlfriend was involved in 'abetment to suicide, cheating, and conspiracy' - filing an FIR in Bihar and demanded a CBI enquiry into his death.
The CBI, which took over the case is still probing, with the AIIMS panel filing its report on Rajput's autopsy to it.