Mumbai: The Narcotics Control Bureau (NCB) on Friday invoked the stringent charge of “illicit trafficking and harbouring of offenders” against actor Rhea Chakraborty and 32 others in its chargesheet submitted in the drugs case related to actor Sushant Singh Rajput’s suicide.

The charge, under Section 27A of the NDPS Act, attracts a minimum sentence of 10 years and a maximum of 20 years in jail. The investigating agency has now alleged that since, in November 2019, delivery of drugs was made at Rhea’s residence with her consent, she had “facilitated her house” (sic) to Rajput, her boyfriend, for consumption of drugs. “Rhea Chakraborty has taken delivery of drugs at her residence, thus, drugs were stored at her house. She has provided funds for purchase of drugs, thus, she has financed an activity related to illicit drug dealings. Rhea Chakraborty has facilitated a channel of supply of drugs with the help of her brother Showik Chakraborty. It is very clear from her statement that she is an active member of the drug syndicate connected with drug supplies,” the NCB said.

The investigating agency alleged that as per the available evidence, it was clear Rhea had conspired to procure, possess, sell, transport, “import interstate, export interstate” and was “dealing with ganja, marijuana and bud”.

On October 7, the Bombay high court, while granting Rhea bail, had found that there was no evidence to suggest she financed the drug trade, which was key to the charge. The court had noted, “Helping procure drugs for Sushant is not the same as harbouring and financing drugs.”

The chargesheet states that Rhea, Showik, Sushant’s cook Dipesh Sawant, house manager Samuel Miranda and accused Rishikesh Pawar procured drugs and supplied it to the late actor. They allegedly procured drugs from several accused, including Karamjeet Singh Anand, Ankush Arneja, Azam Juman. The NCB chargesheet said Anuj Keshwani from whom commercial quantities of drugs were allegedly recovered, Azam Juman and film executive producer Kshitji Prasad are also among key accused. While most of the accused are out on bail, eight are still in jail.

The NCB said the case was thoroughly investigated on the basis of seizures from the accused, voluntary disclosure statements and technical evidence. The agency said it had collected strong evidence including financial transactions, bank statements, ATM details, Call Detail Reports (CDRs) and retrieved deleted messages along with their locations. It also cited WhatsApp chats, audio and video voice chats where the accused have discussed drugs. In a chat purportedly recovered from Showik’s WhatsApp cloud data, on March 17, 2020, he is quoted as asking Samuel how many bags of weed he was getting for Sushant. Samuel responds saying “two” and that “these packets cannot stay long”. Showik then says he will give him “bud” and asks them to remember to pay “10k” from Rhea’s card for 5g.

The agency said it has used statements of the accused for corroboration of other evidence such as financial transactions and chats between the accused. The Supreme Court, in its recent ruling, had held that statements made to NCB officers solely cannot be used as confessional statements in the trial of an offence or to convict an accused under NDPS Act.

The chargesheet quoted a statement of Samuel, in which he is alleged to have said that in the last week of November 2019, he gave a packet of ganja to Showik. The NCB alleged payment for this and another consignment of ganja was made from Sushant’s funds. It alleged Samuel told Karamjeet to deliver two packets of weed meant for Rajput, and these were delivered in the fourth week of January 2020. The NCB claimed that on March17, 2020, acting on Sushant’s directions, accused Suryadeep Malhotra and Showik both told him to buy ganja from alleged drug peddler and co-accused Zaid Vilatra. It is alleged Suryadeep forwarded Vilatra’s contact through WhatsApp and also handed over Rhea’s ATM card to withdraw Rs10,000.

Earlier, NCB had recorded statements of Sara Ali Khan and Shraddha Kapoor in the case. NCB officials said that they will be filing a separate chargesheet soon against Komal Rampal, Swapna Pubby, Karishma Prakash and 14 others. It said the probe will continue.

In the chargesheet, NCB has annexed copies of chemical analysis reports from the Central Forensic Science Laboratory of 14 varieties of drugs including charas, LSD, THC, Ecstasy, Hashish, Narvana, Buds and Ganja. NCB has seized a Mercedes car and 2 Indian cars, Rs 35 lakh in cash and foreign currencies worth $15,000. NCB joint director Sameer Wankhede said that it has 12,000 pages, with statements of around 200 witnesses and dozens of key witnesses.