NCB arrests Rhea after 3 days of grilling in Sushant Singh Rajput Suicide Case

After three days of grilling, the Narcotics Control Bureau (NCB) on Tuesday arrested Bollywood actress Rhea Chakraborty in connection with her alleged role in the drugs angle into the June 14 death of actor Sushant Singh Rajput.

Sushant’s girlfriend Rhea has been charged under the Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances Act and quickly whisked away for a mandatory medical test at the BrihanMumbai Municipal Corporation’s LTMG Sion Hospital. Rhea has pleaded innocence throughout, though.

She will be presented by the NCB before a court for her remand. Rhea’s lawyer Satish Maneshinde termed the arrest a “travesty” of justice. “Three central agencies hounding a single woman — just because she was in love with a drug addict, suffering from mental health issues for several years under the care of five leading psychiatrists in Mumbai, who ended up committing suicide due to consumption of illegally administered medicines and used drugs,” he said.

Earlier, Rhea filed an FIR at the late actor’s sister Priyanka Singh and Dr Tarun Kumar of RML Hospital in New Delhi among others alleging forged medical prescriptions under the Indian Penal Code and the NDPS Act, and as per the Supreme Court orders, the case has been transferred to the CBI for investigation.

Rhea’s arrest came three days after her brother Showik Chakraborty, Sushant’s home manager Samuel Miranda, and his house helper Dipesh Sawant were arrested and sent in NCB custody till September 9 (Wednesday), besides two other drug peddlers Abdel Basit Parihar and Zaid Vilatra, who are also in NCB custody.

The NCB said the arrests would help it to “uproot the drugs citadel in Bollywood and Mumbai” amidst talk of several other Bollywood personalities involved in it. Rhea was grilled several times by the Central Bureau of Investigation and the Enforcement Directorate, and even the Mumbai Police, but was finally arrested by the NCB, nearly 11 weeks after Sushant was found dead in his Bandra home.

Rhea, however, remained calm and composed as she stepped out of the NCB office post-arrest to proceed for a medical test. She did not seek any anticipatory bail either so far, said her lawyer Maneshinde, who is likely to seek bail soon in this case following the arrest.