The Narcotics Control Bureau (NCB) on Wednesday refuted claims about a clean chit given to Bollywood stars Deepika Padukone, Shraddha Kapoor, Sara Ali Khan and others questioned in connection with the a drugs case surrounding the death Sushant Singh Rajput.
“The news article mentioning that the drugs law enforcement agency giving clean chit to those examined by NCB is devoid of the facts and truth,” a source said. He said that the necessary “rebuttal” is being issued to the concerned parties.
The remarks came after a media report claimed that the NCB has given a clean chit to Padukone, her former manager Karishma Prakash, Khan, Kapoor and others in a drugs related case. The NCB questioned Padukone, Kapoor and Prakash on Saturday in Mumbai for several hours over their alleged chats discussing drugs. The NCB also questioned Khan, who starred with Rajput in ‘Kedarnath’, for over five hours in the case on Saturday.
Padukone is the daughter of badminton icon Prakash Padukone and married to actor Ranveer Singh, while Kapoor is daughter of veteran actor Shakti Kapoor. Khan is daughter of actors Saif Ali Khan and Amrita Singh. The NCB also grilled actor Rakul Preet Singh in connection with its probe on Friday for four hours.
However, the officials of the NCB have remained tight lipped on its findings after the questioning of these actresses in the case as it is corroborating the statements of all the people questioned in the case so far.
The NCB also arrested Kshitij Ravi Prasad, former executive producer of the Dharma Productions, in connection with the case after it was found that he procured drugs over a dozen times between May to July and paid Rs3,500 (Dh174) for every 50g of the contraband.
The NCB has already arrested Rajput’s girlfriend Rhea Chakraborty, her brother Showik, the late actor’s house manager Samuel Miranda, personal staff Dipesh Sawant in the case along with 16 other accused. The NCB registered a case after it received a request from Enforcement Directorate (ED) following the alleged chats discussing drugs came to the fore. The NCB registered two cases and Khan and Kapoor are inter linked in both of the cases. Besides the NCB, the CBI and the ED are also probing the death of Rajput, who was found dead in his Bandra apartment on June 14.
