Rhea Chakraborty linked to drugs supply racket in Bollywood, claims NCB
Darpan News Desk IANS, 13 Jul, 2022 04:31 PM
Mumbai, July 13 (IANS) In a startling development, the Narcotics Control Bureau (NCB) has claimed that actress Rhea Chakraborty and others were allegedly involved in a major criminal conspiracy to run a drugs racket, for Bollywood and other high society people.
In its draft charges filed before a Mumbai Special NDPS Court on Tuesday, the NCB has detailed how between March-December 2020, Rhea, her brother Showik and 34 others accused in the death case of the late Sushant Singh Rajput, were part of a plot to finance, procure, sell, transport and distribute drugs like Ganja, Charas, Cocaine, LSD to the high-profile end-users.
As part of the plot, from January-August 2020, Siddharth Pithani -- a friend of Rajput, found dead in his rented Bandra home on June 14, 2020 -- was in regular touch with the actor (Rajput) and his girlfriend Rhea, her brother Showik, domestic aides like Samuel Miranda, Dipesh Sawant and others to procure Ganja, as per the NCB draft charges.
The probe agency revealed how Pithani had used a private bank app of Rajput to source Ganja and other drugs from his bank account, describing them as 'puja samagri' (prayer materials) and accordingly abetted Rajput's extreme addiction to drugs.
The NCB contended that the actress' brother Showik Chakraborty was also allegedly linked with drug peddlers from whom he received packets on behalf of Rajput.
While Rhea was arrested in September 2020 and released on bail after almost a month in October 2020, Pithani was nabbed in May 2021 and released on bail last week, as part of the NCB's avowed probe to uproot what it termed athe drugs citadel Mumbai, especially in Bollywood'.
After hearing the arguments from both sides in the case, the Special NDPS Judge V.G. Raghuvanshi will decide on which of the 38 charges shall be framed against the 35 accused.
But Sobti, who passed away on Tuesday at the age of 74 in New Delhi, became briefly famous when he played the Pandava strongman Bhim in B.R. Chopra's iconic television serial 'Mahabharat'.
In her caption, the singer-restaurateur wrote: "'Bachpan ke din bhi kya din the' (How wonderful were the days of our childhood)." The reference was to one of Asha Bhosle's melodious numbers, which she sang along with Geeta Dutt, in one of Bimal Roy's most-remembered films, 'Sujata' (1959).
Lataji sang at prestigious live concerts or charitable events, enthralling global audiences, picked up more overseas accolades, such as France's highest civilian honour, Officer of the Legion of Honour.
She received critical acclaim for her role as Phulwa Singh. She started her journey in the Punjabi film industry with the movie, Angrej for which she received a PTC Punjabi Film Awards for Best Actress.
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The character actor is best remembered by Hindi film fans for his role of a doctor in 'Anand' (1971), the Hrishikesh Mukherjee film starring Rajesh Khanna and Amitabh Bachchan, and in Gulzar's 'Mere Apne' (1971), where Meena Kumari, Vinod Khanna and Shatrughan Sinha played the lead characters.
.jpg "Asha Bhosle dedicates 'Sujata' song to her Didi")
