The Narcotics Control Bureau (NCB) filed a lengthy charge sheet and said Rhea Chakraborty “sponsored purchase of drugs” in 2020, between March and May, in the case of the drug-related death of Bollywood actor Sushant Singh Rajput. The NCB filed the charge sheet on 5th March 2021 in front of the special NDPS (Narcotic drugs and psychotropic substances) court. The charge sheet includes names of 33 accused which includes Sushant Singh’s alleged girlfriend Rhea Chakraborty, her brother Showik Chakraborty, brother of actor Arjun Rampal’s partner Agisilaos Demetriades, Dharmatic Entertainment’s producer Kshitij Prasad and more.
The charge sheet also includes names such as Abbas Lakhani, Zaid Vilatra, Abdel Basit Parihar, Kaizan Ebrahim, Sanket Patel, Karamjeet Anand, Dwayne Fernandes, Aftab Ansari, Crist Perreira, Suryadeep Malhotra, Rahil Vishram, Jai Madhok, Sahil Ali, Nikhil Saldanha, Paul Bartel, Ginendra Jain, Mohammed Azam Shaikh, Karn Arora, Anug Ghughe, Yen Valavalkar, Rishikesh Pawar, Jagtap Anand, Rahila Furniturewala Karan Sajnani, and Sandeep Gupta as the accused in the case.
THE charge sheet has a hard copy with 12,000 pages and a digital format copy with around 50,000 pages. It also contains the statement of over 200 witnesses. In the charge sheet, it was ascertained that Rhea Chakraborty’s debit card was first used to withdraw approximately Rs. 50,000 from multiple ATMs, and then used to procure drugs. According to reports, the NCB considered Whatsapp chats, audio notes between the accused as the evidence. Reports suggest that there were WhatsApp chats and audio notes between the accused were conversations regarding the purchase, procurement and delivery of drugs, including ganja (marijuana), for Sushant Singh Rajput.
In the alleged conversations, the accused reportedly discussed the availability of ‘hash’ and ‘maal’. Another alleged conversation that transpired between Rhea Chakraborty’s brother Showik and Miranda on March 17, 2020, goes into detail about getting ‘bags of weed’ for late actor Sushant Singh Rajput. According to NCB’s claim a withdrawal of Rs. 10,000 from Rhea’s account was made the same day.
In the charge sheet filed in the NDPS court, the NCB claimed that some amount of ganja (marijuana) was delivered at Rhea Chakraborty’s Santacruz residence, which was intended for Sushant Singh Rajput. As she took the delivery, helped in its consumption by Sushant, and made subsequent payments, she is an active member of a drug syndicate.
According to reports, Chakraborty in a statement to the police claimed that she procured drugs because “Sushant asked her to”. A source who has been quoted by major news publications claimed that Rhea in her statement said that Sushant insisted and asked her to buy drugs. The source also claimed that Rhea herself later admitted of occasionally consuming marijuana.
The Sushant Singh Rajput-Rhea Chakraborty story so far
After the unfortunate death of Sushant Singh Rajput, pieces of evidence were recovered which indicated that Rajput’s death was drug-related and his alleged girlfriend Rhea Chakraborty could have played a role in his demise. The case was registered in August 2020 after a private WhatsApp chat revealed that Rhea Chakraborty, her brother Showik, and Sushant Singh’s staff, were all part of procuring and supplying drugs to Sushant Singh.
While Rhea, Showik, Samuel Miranda, Deepesh Sawant (both part of Sushant’s staff), are out on bail currently, the NCB has made over 30 arrests and have jailed people in connection with the case. In the six-month-long investigation, the NCB conducted raids and arrested drug peddlers that used to operate inside Bollywood actively.
NCB also recorded statements of Bollywood actors and celebrities such as Sara Ali Khan, Shraddha Kapoor, Arjun Rampal, Sara Ali Khan, and more. These statements and other interrogative findings by the NCB have been submitted to the special NDPS court. The court will now verify the statements made and the accused will be made to appear in the court of law.
