Taking the first major step in busting the alleged Bollywood-drug mafia nexus, the Narcotics Control Bureau (NCB) on Friday arrested Showik Chakraborty and Samuel Miranda, the two close aides of late Bollywood actor Sushant Singh Rajput.
While Showik is brother of Rhea Chakraborty, the live-in partner of the actor, Miranda is former house manager of Sushant.
Showik and Samuel Miranda were brought to the NCB’s regional office at Ballard Estate in Mumbai after an over four-hour raid at their residences.
The NCB now is expected to call 28-year-old Rhea and her father Lt Col (retd) Dr Indrajit Chakraborty for grilling.
Showik and Miranda will be produced in the court on Saturday.
The cases against them are vis-a-vis drugs and not the death of the actor.
At dawn, NCB sleuths raided the residence of Miranda in Andheri West and the Chakrabortys in Santacruz West for close to four hours and seized digital devices like laptops and smartphones.
During the interrogation, Showik had told the agency that he used to procure drugs for Sushant.
Later, they were taken to the NCB’s regional headquarters at the Ballard Estate in Mumbai, where they were grilled separately and confronted with each other.
The trio – Rhea, Showik and Miranda were among the closest to the actor.
Rhea had claimed that Sushant used to smoke marijuana.
The current investigation focuses on the procurement of the contraband and supply to the 34-year-old Sushant.
In a related development, Abdel Basit Parihar, an alleged drug peddler, has been sent to NCB custody till September 9. Parihar was made to join the investigation based on Zaid Vilatra's interrogation. Both Basit and Zaid are alleged to be involved in drug peddling and supplying contraband to high-profile people.
Both Basit and Zaid have links to Showik and Miranda.
Sushant’s father Krishna Kishore Singh has blamed the former’s live-in partner Rhea Chakraborty for the death of the actor, who essayed the role of former Team India skipper and legendary wicketkeeper-batsman MS Dhoni in the film ‘MS Dhoni: The Untold Story’.
During the raids, digital devices of Showik and Miranda were checked.
WhatsApp chat of Showik, Rhea and Miranda had shown conversation about drugs.
In the last few days, Goa-based hotelier Gaurav Arya has been grilled by ED. Chats between him and Rhea too have revealed the drug angle.
Meanwhile, Sushant’s sister Shweta Singh Kirti tweeted: “Good going NCB... Thank You God.”