Judicial custody of Rhea Chakraborty, Showik extended till Oct 20

The Special NDPS court on Tuesday extended judicial custody of actress Rhea Chakraborty and brother Showik till October 20.

Their first bail applications were turned down by a special NDPS court on September 11. Following this, Rhea and her brother had moved the Bombay High Court and the HC has reserved its order.

The Narcotics Control Bureau (NCB) had opposed the bail pleas filed by Rhea Chakraborty and Showik following their arrest in a drugs case related to actor Sushant Singh Rajput’s death.

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.

On previous hearings, the actress and her brother opposed the application of the above section in their case.

Their counsel Satish Maneshinde last week argued that the section did not apply in the present case as Rhea Chakraborty occasionally paid for drugs that were consumed only by her boyfriend, late actor Sushant Singh Rajput.