Ahmed Ali (THE TIMES OF INDIA; September 5, 2020)

Mumbai: Rhea Chakraborty’s brother Showik and late actor Sushant Singh Rajput’s house manager Samuel Miranda, who were arrested by the Narcotics Control Bureau on Friday, will be produced in court on Saturday. The duo has been booked under sections that pertain to production, manufacture, possession, sale, purchase and transport of narcotic or psychotropic substance and abetment and conspiracy under the NDPS Act. The offence carries a maximum punishment of one year and a fine.

The arrested duo had procured marijuana from drug peddlers for Rajput, officials claimed. The duo, however, did not use marijuana, sources said. Officials are also probing the role of Rhea based on the chats recovered from her mobile.

NCB officials said the drug, Bud, a curated form of marijuana, is in demand in Bollywood and sold for around Rs 5,000 per gram and claimed that it wanted to uproot the drug cartel in Mumbai, especially Bollywood.

Rhea Chakraborty in an interview had said Rajput used to smoke marijuana. “Sushant used to smoke marijuana and drink regularly.”

The Enforcement Directorate probing the money-laundering angle had found chat messages pertaining to drugs on Rhea’s mobile that triggered this investigation. The ED had passed on the details to the NCB. The ED had cloned her mobile and found her involvement in purchase, consumption, transportation and usage of contraband, NCB claimed. Officials said her WhatsApp chats with other entities point to conspiracy and abetment. Earlier in the day, NCB carried out searches at Rhea’s Santacruz residence where she stayed with her brother Showik, and Miranda’s flat in Sahar village. Both were brought to the NCB office where they were questioned before being placed under arrest at 9pm.

NCB had earlier arrested another ‘drug supplier’, Basit Parihar, who has been remanded in custody till September 9. “Basit Parihar has not only admitted to having purchased and sold marijuana, but he has said he used to procure drugs from Vilatra and Kaizan (two other suspects) as per Showik’s instructions and was directing them to deliver it to Samuel,” Parihar’s remand application states.

Zaid Vilatra was arrested on Wednesday, while Kaizan Ibrahim was being questioned by officials. He is likely to be arrested by Saturday morning, officials said.

Basit’s lawyer Tarak Sayyed said, “These are youngsters from affluent families. How is the NCB branding them drug peddlers? They have been remanded in custody though nothing has been recovered from them and the sections under which they are arrested are bailable.”
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Strong case against the accused who are involved in procurement, usage, and transportation of drugs: NCB
Somendra Sharma (MUMBAI MIRROR; September 5, 2020)

Sushant Singh Rajput’s girlfriend Rhea Chakraborty’s brother Showik, and Rajput’s house manager Samuel Miranda, were placed under arrest by the Narcotics Control Bureau (NCB) on Friday night. Showik, 24, along with Miranda were questioned by the NCB at its Ballard Pier office for more than 12 hours before their arrest late yesterday. The two will be produced in court today.

NCB Deputy Director K P S Malhotra said that Showik and Miranda were booked under the NDPS Act sections 20(b) (produce, manufacture, possession, sale, purchase, transportation, inter-state import/export or usage of cannabis), 28 (attempts to commit the said offences) and 29 (abetment and criminal conspiracy). “Showik and Miranda have been placed under arrest. We have a strong case as far as this syndicate is concerned. The accused are involved in procurement, usage, and transportation of the contraband. Their families have been informed of the arrests,” Malhotra said.

The events leading up to the arrests of the two were equally dramatic, with the NCB teams reaching the Chakraborty residence in Santacruz West and Miranda’s house in Andheri West early as 6.30 am. A couple of hours later, they were at the NCB’s south Mumbai office where they were confronted with the information provided by two alleged drug peddlers Zaid Vilatra and Abdel Basit Parihar. Vilatra, 21, and Parihar, 23, were arrested on Wednesday while another person, Kaizan Ibrahim, is being questioned since Thursday.

HOW THE ‘DRUG RING’ WAS BUSTED
The NCB conducted a series of raids on the intervening night of August 27-28 wherein two people, Abbas Lakhani and Karan Arora were arrested with curated marijuana, known as ‘bud’ among drug users. Their interrogation led the NCB to Vilatra, who had with him Rs 9.55 lakh, around $2000, 180 British Pounds, and 15 UAE Dirhams. The NCB has claimed that Vilatra collected the money through drug peddling. “Vilatra said that he ran a small restaurant in Bandra which suffered losses during the lockdown, and that he earned substantial amount peddling curated marijuana,” a NCB officer said.

Parihar, also a resident of Bandra, was arrested after interrogating Vilatra. Parihar is alleged to have “links” with the narcotics case registered against Rhea, Showik and Miranda. Bandra resident Parihar is linked to Ibrahim, who in turn is allegedly featuring in chats recovered from the mobile phone of Rhea and Showik, the NCB officials have said. Rhea is the main accused in the death case of Sushant that is being probed by the NCB, the Enforcement Directorate (ED) on money laundering charges, and the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI).

Hours before the arrests of Miranda and Showik – who is a partner in two companies that Sushant formed with Rhea – the NCB told the court that Parihar revealed he used to procure drugs as per the instructions of Showik. While seeking Parihar’s remand, the NCB told the court that Vilatra in his statement had disclosed the name of Parihar as the receiver of ganja. “Parihar revealed that he used to procure drugs from Vilatra and another person Kaizan Ibrahim as per the instructions of Showik Chakraborty,” the NCB told the court. The agency further said that there were other instances where Parihar facilitated to arrange for drugs, and was in contact with Showik.

The NCB said that Showik’s chats revealed that on March 17, he had shared Vilatra’s contact details with Miranda and instructed to pay him Rs 10,000 for five gm of contraband. Thereafter, Miranda had contacted Vilatra for the first time on Showik’s behest, the NCB said. “It is clear from the statements of the accused (Parihar) that he was an active member of the drug syndicates connected with high society personalities and drug suppliers,” the NCB said. Parihar has given many names and his custody is essential to unearth the main player in the drug syndicate, it said.
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Agency has seized documents, data and cellphones, suspects Samuel Miranda and Showik Chakraborty were responsible for supplying drugs to the actor
Vishal Singh, Faizan Khan (MID-DAY; September 5, 2020)

The Narcotics Control Bureau (NCB) arrested Rhea Chakraborty's brother Showik, Sushant Singh Rajput's household manager Samuel Miranda and another drug peddler Kaizan Ibrahim as part of its probe into the drug angle in the actor's death case on Friday. Early in the morning, it had also raided the residence of Showik and Rhea and seized documents and old mobile phones.

The arrests took place after several hours of questioning," Deputy Director of Operations (NCB) KPS Malhotra, told mid-day.

"Showik was dealing with at least five-six drug peddlers. Rhea used to ask him to get drugs. So he would provide the contacts of drug peddlers to Miranda, who was responsible for picking them up and making payments," an officer privy to investigation said.

After arresting the duo, Rhea was also summoned for questioning. After the raid, Miranda and Rhea's brother, Showik, were brought to the NCB office for questioning.

The agency had early on Friday also raided Miranda and Rhea's residences and seized documents and old mobile phones. The raid was lead by Zonal Director Sameer Wankhede who was recently appointed as the NCB's zonal director for Mumbai.

Before Friday's arrests, the agency had arrested four people and recovered 59 grams of marijuana (ganja).

Showik had also paid drug peddler Abdel Basit Parihar via Google Pay. Arrested on Thursday, Parihar was remanded to NCB custody still Septemner 9.

Drug Trail
According to what has been revealed by arrested accused Zaid Vilatara, Parihar used to procure drugs from him and Ibrahim on the instructions of Showrik. The drugs used to be picked up by Miranda. NCB also told the court that as per Parihar's statements, he is an active member of a drug syndicate connected with high-profile personalities and drugs suppliers. Payments were done through Google Pay.

"We showed evidence gathered during the probe and Miranda admitted that he was collecting drugs for Sushant from the peddlers," a senior NCB officer told mid-day. However, Showik has denied selling and purchasing drugs for profit or that he is part of a cartel.

On the other hand, the SIT of Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) recorded statements of senior pyschiatrist Harish Shetty on Friday. Rajput had visited Shetty once in 2014 for insomnia. According to the statement the doctor had given to Mumbai police earlier, Sushant did not have major issues but was prescribed medicines and asked to come for a follow-up appointment, but did not turn up.

Kannada Actress Held
In another development, actress Ragini Dwivedi was arrested by Bengaluru's Central Crime Branch (CCB), which is investigating consumption and trading of drugs in the Kannada film industry, on Friday. The Mumbai NCB is seeking information about the case as it suspects that people from the same gang are supplying drugs to both film industries.