Senior lawyer Satish Maneshinde has sought after a fresh probe into actor Rhea Chakraborty’s drug case related to the death of late actor Sushant Singh Rajput after Shah Rukh Khan’s son Aryan Khan was given a clean chit in the cruise ship drugs case last week by the Narcotics Control Bureau (NCB).
Khan, who was earlier arrested and then released on bail in the drug case, was cleared of all charges due to the lack of concrete evidence to prove his conspiracy with the other accused and also since no drugs were found on him.
Maneshinde, who represented Khan and Chakraborty, has now sought a similar enquiry into Chakraborty’s drug case. Speaking to E Times, he said, “I demanded on social media that there should be an enquiry in Rhea’s case. NCB can form a Special Investigation Team (SIT) and investigate this case too.”
Pointing out that SN Pradhan, the Director General of NCB, had said that WhatsApp chats are not admissible in court, Maneshinde said, “No drugs were found on her. No tests were done. Why should she suffer? Her case was also handled by a set of officers who were part of Aryan’s case too. I am requesting the central government authorities and the PMO to look into this.”
Maneshinde also called for an enquiry into the other Bollywood drug cases. “Deepika Padukone, Rakul Preet Singh and Sara Ali Khan were all paraded at the NCB office. The DG NCB should investigate the matter,” he said.
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Following the death of Rajput on June 14, 2020, in Mumbai, a massive drug probe was carried out within the Hindi film industry. Rajput’s family had filed cases against Chakraborty and her brother alleging that they involved Rajput in money laundering and had procured drugs for him.
On September 8, 2020, Rhea Chakraborty was arrested by the NCB for the alleged use and possession of drugs, financing illicit traffic, abetment and criminal conspiracy. Chakraborty was later granted bail on October 7, 2020 by the Bombay High Court.