The Narcotics Control Bureau (NCB), which is looking into the allegations of drug use by late Bollywood actor Sushant Singh Rajput and his actor-girlfriend Rhea Chakraborty, arrested Rhea’s brother Showik and Sushant Singh Rajput’s house manager Samuel Miranda on Friday night.
Two others – Bandra residents Basit Parihar, 23, and Kaizan Ebrahim – were also arrested on Friday on charges of peddling drugs, taking the number of arrests in the case to seven.
KPS Malhotra, deputy director of NCB, said, “We have informed the families of Showik and Miranda and both have been arrested under several sections of the Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances Act.”
Parihar was produced before a magistrate’s court which remanded him in the NCB custody till September 9. Showik, Samuel and Ebrahim will be produced before a magistrate’s court on Saturday.
The other three arrested for drug peddling are Zaid Vilatra, 20 (arrested on Thursday), Abbas Lakhani, and Karan Arora (arrested on August 27-28). Lakhani and Arora were arrested based on a specific input in another case and curated marijuana was seized from their possession. Their questioning led the NCB to Vilatra, who told officials that he ran an eatery in Bandra (West) but was suffering losses owing to the lockdown and so started to peddle drugs. Vilatra alleged he was in touch with Ebrahim and Parihar.
Parihar allegedly told the NCB that he used to procure drugs from Vilatra and Ebrahim on the instructions of Chakraborty’s brother Showik who asked him to give it to Rajput’s house manager Samuel Miranda. Showik’s chats on a messaging application showed that on March 17, he shared Vilatra’s contact number with Miranda and asked to pay him Rs 10,000 for 5 grams of drugs. Miranda and Vilatra were tracked to the same location on March 17, said NCB officials.
A senior IPS officer from the NCB said, “We conducted searches at Miranda’s and Showik’s homes and collected some evidence. The investigation is at a preliminary stage and details of the evidence gathered can’t be revealed at the moment.”
NCB officials said they have recovered Indian currency worth Rs 955,750 and foreign currency – US $ 2,081; 180 British Pound, 15 Dirham – from Vilatra.
