Drugs case: Rhea Chakraborty gets bail, HC rejects Showik’s plea

The Bombay High Court on Wednesday granted bail to actress Rhea Chakraborty, but denied bail for her brother Showik in the drugs case. The Special NDPS Court on Tuesday extended the judicial custody of the brother-sister duo and 18 others, arrested by the NCB, till October 20.

The actor had moved the high court in September after her first bail plea was denied by a special court in Mumbai on September 11.

The NCB is probing a drug angle related to the death case of Sushant Singh Rajput who was found dead at his Mumbai residence on June 14.

The NCB arrested Rhea on September 9. Besides Rhea and Showik, the NCB has also arrested Sushant’s house manager Samuel Miranda and Sushant’s domestic help Dipesh Sawant.

In her bail application, Rhea had alleged that during her interrogation by the NCB, she was coerced into making “self-incriminating confessions”. She claimed that she has not committed any crime whatsoever and has been falsely implicated in the case.

The NCB had opposed the bail pleas filed by Rhea and Showik. The siblings were “active members of a drug syndicate that was connected with high society personalities and drug suppliers”, the NCB said in an affidavit filed before the HC.

The NCB further said both Rhea Chakraborty and her brother had “abetted and financed” drug transactions.

Therefore, the agency had booked them under the stringent section 27A of the Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances (NDPS) Act, it said in the affidavit.

Section 27A provides punishment for up to 10 years for financing drug trafficking and harbouring offenders, and also carries a bar on grant of bail.