The Bombay high court on Wednesday granted bail to Rhea Chakraborty but rejected her brother Showik’s bail plea in a drug case being investigated by the Narcotics Control Bureau (NCB).
The HC refused bail to one more co-accused and alleged peddler, Abdel Basit Parihar, 23, while granting it to Samuel Miranda, house manager of the late Bollywood actor Sushant Singh Rajput and Dipesh Samant, Rajput’s personal staff.
The NCB had arrested all five, apart from 15 others in a case allegedly linked to a ‘drug angle’ into actor Sushant Singh Rajput’s untimely death on June 14.
Justice Sarang Kotwal, who pronounced the orders via video conferencing, declined a plea for a stay on Rhea’s bail as sought by the NCB counsel Anil Singh.
The HC permitted Rhea to furnish a cash bail of Rs 1 lakh within a month and to furnish sureties within that time. She has to regularly report to the nearest police station and has to surrender her passport. Justice Kotwal said he has imposed sufficiently stringent conditions on bail.
Significantly, Justice Kotwal held that all offenses under the Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances Act (NDPS) are non-bailable offenses.
The NCB had arrested Rhea, 28, on September 8 and termed her an “active member of a drug syndicate’’ and that it wants to “bust the drug citadel in Mumbai’’. The NCB invoked section 27A of the NDPS Act against Rhea and Showik, alleging that the siblings “financed the drug procurement’’ and that Showik facilitated its delivery to Sushant.
The siblings’ advocate Satish Maneshinde in exhaustive submissions for bail had argued that even when NCB produced her for remand on the first day it did not seek her custody and she has retracted her statement on September 8 itself.
Alleged peddler Abdel Parihar’s counsel Tariq Sayed had also argued extensively for his bail, saying nothing was seized from him. He had also argued that NCB’s premise of roping in the youth where small quantities, if at all were alleged, for heinous charges meant for large drug financing cartels, spell doom for society.
Additional solicitor general Anil Singh appearing for NCB had argued that the drug law is meant to be a “deterrent’’ and seeks to punish all those who finance and help the drug habits of others. He had said Rhea and Showik “financed’’ Rajput’s drug fix, hence the stringent non-bailable offense of ‘financing illicit traffic and harboring’’ under section 27A of NDPS Act was rightly invoked against them.
Maneshinde soon after the bail was granted said, “We are delighted by the order of the Bombay High Court granting bail to Rhea Chakraborty. Truth and Justice have prevailed and ultimately the submissions on facts and law have been accepted by Justice Sarang V Kotwal.’’
He added, “The arrest and custody of Rhea were totally unwarranted and beyond the reach of the law. The hounding and witch hunt by three central agencies, the CBI, ED, and NCB of Rhea should come to an end. We remain committed to Truth. Satya Meva Jayate.’’
A special NDPS court had rejected bail pleas of the five on September 11.
On October 6, a special court under the Narcotic Drug and Psychotropic Substances (NDPS) Act had extended her judicial custody till October 20.
The HC in its order while granting Rhea bail held, “simply providing money for a particular transaction or other transactions will not be the financing of that activity. Financing will have to be interpreted to mean to provide funds for either making that particular activity operational or for sustaining it. It is the financial support that directly or indirectly is the cause of the existence of such illicit traffic. The word “financing” would necessarily refer to some activities involving illegal trade or business” and “The allegations against the Applicant of spending money in procuring drugs for Sushant Singh Rajput will not, therefore, mean that she had financed illicit traffic.”