Rhea, Other Accused Part Of A Drug Syndicate: NCB To HC

The Narcotic Control Bureau (NCB) while opposing bail pleas filed by actor Rhea Chakraborty and five others in the Bollywood drug case on Tuesday told the Bombay High Court that all persons arrested till now are connected to each other and it is a syndicate.

“All persons arrested till now, are connected with each other and it is a syndicate. There was a regular link and purchasing. Therefore, the court will have to consider the case as a whole, not one accused from another,” the NCB said in the court.

The NCB was represented before the High Court by ASG Anil Singh who argued in detail before the HC concluded the arguments of all lawyers of the accused and reserved the matter for orders.

Before the ASG pointed out the complicity of all the accused in this case and opposed the bail for each accused, all the five accused were represented by their lawyers before the Bombay High Court. Rhea and Showik Chakraborty were represented by Advocate Satish Maneshinde, Samuel Miranda was represented by Advocate Subodh Desai,

Advocate Tarak Sayyad appeared for Abdel Basit Parihar and for Dipesh Sawant Advocate Rajesh Rathod put his arguments.

All lawyers for the applicants began their arguments that this is a case where offence is bailable and it doesn’t attract stringent section 27 A of The NDPS act. However, this argument was not accepted by Bombay HC Justice Sarang V Kotwal and he asked all lawyers to argue on the merits of the case instead of applicability of nonbailable sections.

Satish Maneshinde argued that his clients Showik and Rhea were merely involved in this because they were doing this for Sushant Singh Rajput and if the late actor was alive, even he would have been charged only for the consumption of contraband. But Rhea and Showik are being wrongly projected as accused involved in Commercial activities prohibited by NDPS act like Financing, Harbouring and sheltering etc. which is not justifiable.

Satish Maneshinde also argued that according to Supreme Court order this case can’t be investigated by NCB as per the SC orders in Sushant Singh Rajput death case which had ordered that all cases related to the late actor’s death will be investigated by CBI only.

To this, NCB lawyer opposed these jurisdiction arguments and told the court that this case is not Sushant Singh Rajput’s death case but a separate case in its own in the NDPS act and NCB has complete jurisdiction in this case. Para 41 9f the said SC orders about jurisdiction also doesn’t affect NCB’s Jurisdiction in this case.

After over seven hours of arguments, Justice Kotwal’s single-judge bench reserved it’s orders and observed that he will try to pass orders as early as possible. But as the case is voluminous and many things have to be discussed, it may take time for orders. (ANI)