On Wednesday, the NCB issued summons to actors Deepika Padukone and Rakul Preet Singh in connection with the WhatsApp chats case (15/20) against Chakraborty

THE NARCOTICS Control Bureau (NCB) has so far not made a single arrest in the FIR that had been registered against six persons, including Rhea Chakraborty, her brother Showik and four others, primarily based on Chakraborty’s WhatsApp chats purportedly discussing drugs.

Chakraborty, Showik and 17 others (three of them out on bail) are under arrest based on a second FIR, No. 16/20, registered by the NCB suo motu two days after the initial FIR (No. 15/20). The agency had told a local court that the second FIR meant to “uproot the drug citadel in Mumbai, especially Bollywood”, and claimed seizures of commercial quantities of narcotics, including LSD, from one of the arrested accused. Incidentally, when it first brought up this second FIR in court, the NCB had made no mention of Sushant Singh Rajput, adding it later.

On Wednesday, the NCB issued summons to actors Deepika Padukone and Rakul Preet Singh in connection with the WhatsApp chats case (15/20) against Chakraborty. The chats had been provided to the NCB by the Enforcement Directorate, and the agency has so far not made any seizures that could be collaborative evidence.

Soon after the NCB had registered that FIR, on August 26, a team had landed from Delhi in Mumbai to investigate the matter. By August 28, the agency had arrested two persons, Abbas Lakhani and Karn Arora. It was when they were produced before the court for remand that the NCB said they had been arrested under a new FIR, without mentioning the Rajput case at all.

Then, on September 3, the NCB arrested one Zaid Vilatra under the FIR No. 16/20 and said that it was “investigating the Sushant Singh Rajput case and therefore (police custody) is highly substantive and needs to be investigated thoroughly so as to uproot drug citadel in Mumbai especially in Bollywood.”

Since then, the NCB has arrested 16 more in the second FIR, including Chakraborty and her brother Showik, and has kept mentioning the Rajput case.

Asked why no arrests had been made in the WhatsApp case, an official said, “Rhea turned out to be the final link in the FIR directed at Bollywood drug use, while in the 15/20 FIR, she was the first accused.”

Asked about the status of the initial FIR, an NCB official justified, “We are not sure we can charge Rhea in the initial FIR as it could amount to double jeopardy since we will be charging her in the second FIR as well. So we will take legal opinion on it.”

Source: The Indian Express