Kshitij Prasad, who has been arrested in connection with the drug investigation related to actor Rhea Chakraborty, allegedly purchased ‘ganja’ around a dozen times over a three-month period, Narcotics Control Bureau (NCB) sources said on Sunday. Prasad, who has worked on a contract basis with leading film production firms in Mumbai, allegedly paid the peddler, another accused, Rs 3,500 each time for the 50-gram contraband, the sources said.

The NCB is verifying if Prasad passed on the contraband to others in Bollywood, the sources said. Officials suspects that as a buyer he was indirectly part of transactions linked to another case co-accused, from whom the agency had seized a variety of narcotics in commercial quantity.

“Kshitij Prasad is indirectly connected with a case accused, Anuj Keshwani, from whom narcotics in commercial quantity were seized. Therefore, it is necessary to investigate who he was delivering contraband to in Bollywood,” said a source. A city court on Sunday remanded Prasad to the NCB’s custody till October 3. Keshwani is already in judicial custody.

The investigation is in the preliminary stage as revelations made by the accused, Prasad, are to be verified and his known/unknown respondents have to be traced and apprehended, the agency told the court. “Prasad bought weed 12 times in three months from a peddler. We are verifying if such frequent purchases were for personal consumption or they were passed on further to others,” the source said. “We are tracking bank and cash payments made by the accused.” The agency has so far arrested 20 people in the case.

Based on disclosures by Keshwani, the NCB had on September 12 searched the premises of another accused, Ankush Arneja, seizing 42 gram of charas and cash worth Rs 1.12 lakh and certain documents. Arneja’s statement was recorded under the NDPS (Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances Act), wherein he stated that he supplied hashish to Prasad via co-accused Sanket Patel on various occasion, according to the NCB. Arneja was arrested and is in judicial custody.

Patel, in his statement to the NCB, later allegedly said that he had supplied cannabis to Prasad outside his Andheri (West) building “around 12 times” between May and July on the instructions of co-accused Karamjeet Singh. Each time, Prasad allegedly paid Rs 3,500 after taking delivery. Patel also said that he had allegedly supplied ganja to Arneja on the instructions of Singh. Singh was arrested by the NCB and is in judicial custody.

The NCB had on Friday searched Prasad’s house and said it had recovered one rolled joint “believed to be remains of smoked ganja joint”, certain documents and gadgets. Prasad has denied the allegations. The NCB had on Saturday interviewed actors Deepika Padukone, Sara Ali Khan and Shraddha Kapoor in connection with the probe. The agency also questioned Padukone’s manager Karishma Prakash.