Investigating two cases parallelly, the Narcotics Control Bureau (NCB) has reached the doorsteps of Bollywood’s bigwigs.
During the next couple of weeks, several big people from the Hindi entertainment industry will be called.
There are two sets of cases that were registered by NCB – FIR 15/20 and FIR 16/20 – and there seems to be a common thread, according to the investigations conducted so far by the federal anti-drug agency.
While 15/20 deals with the drug angle vis-à-vis Sushant Singh Rajput case, 16/20 involves a probe of the larger Bollywood-drug cartel nexus.
The 15/20 investigations are being carried out at the Exchange Building at Ballard Estate where the NCB’s zonal office is located and 16/20 at Evelyn House, the guesthouse of the Mumbai Port Trust near the Taj Mahal Palace.
On Friday, the NCB sleuths zeroed in on an executive producer & director Kshitij Ravi Prasad, who is said to be associated with a top filmmaker.
Incidentally, Kshitij has good relations with top stars and has in the past worked with a superstar’s company.
NCB officials took him to the Exchange Building even as actor Rakul Preet Singh, who has acted in Tamil, Telugu, Kannada, and Hindi films, and Karishma Prakash, the business manager of actor Deepika Padukone, who is associated with KWAN talent management agency.
On Saturday and Sunday, Deepika Padukone, Shraddha Kapoor, and Sara Ali Khan are expected to be grilled by the NCB.
Deepika Padukone, the daughter of badminton legend Prakash Padukone, is married to actor Ranveer Singh.
Shraddha is the daughter of actor Shakti Kapoor and Sara is the daughter of actor Saif Ali Khan and his first wife Amrita Singh and granddaughter of an aristocrat and cricketing legend late MAK Pataudi and actor and ex-Censor Board chief Sharmila Tagore.
Earlier this week, the NCB examined business managers Jayanti Saha, Shruti Modi, producer Madhu Mantena Varma, designer Simone Khambatta.
Several Bollywood party organisers too have come under the scanner - following the interrogation of the dozen off-peddlers.
As far as Sushant's live-in partner Rhea Chakraborty and her brother Showik are concerned, a top NCB official said, "Rhea was arrested due to her linkages with the drug trafficking network. In her statement, she dwelled into other aspects, wherein violations of provisions of the NDPS Act were noted."