The twenty-four-year-old has been behind bars for the past three months.
Special NDPS court grants bail to Showik Chakraborty
Mumbai - 02 Dec 2020 16:52 IST
Updated : 17:23 IST
Our Correspondent
Showik Chakraborty, the brother of actress Rhea Chakraborty, has been granted bail by a special NDPS (Narcotics Drugs and Psychotropic Substances Act) court in Mumbai today.
[BREAKING] Showik Chakraborty, Rhea Chakraborty's brother, granted bail by Special NDPS Court at Mumbai in the NDPS case registered by the NCB @narcoticsbureau.
— Live Law (@LiveLawIndia) December 2, 2020
He has been under custody since September 5 following the arrest by the NCB.@Tweet2Rhea pic.twitter.com/n4FLlYn9fh
The 24-year-old has been in jail since 4 September when he and Samuel Miranda, the house manager of the late actor Sushant Singh Rajput, were arrested by the Narcotics Control Bureau (NCB), on charges of possession and consumption of drugs under various sections of the stringent NDPS Act. Rhea was arrested four days after her brother. The 28-year-old actress, who dated Rajput in the months prior to his death on June 14, was accused of procuring drugs for him. However, she was granted bail by the Bombay high court on 7 October, a day after the special court extended the custody of the actress and Showik to 20 October.
The high court denied relief to Showik, stating, "The material gathered so far shows that Showik not only knew many drug dealers but he was in touch with them and was actually transacting with them. Thus, he is part of chain of drug dealers. At this stage, the investigating agency has sufficient material to show he is part of a chain of drug dealers engaged in illicit traffic of drugs."
Showik approached the special court for bail again early in November, citing a recent Supreme Court ruling which held that statements made before NCB officers could not be considered confessions.
Maintaining that he had been falsely implicated in the case, the bail plea reads: “In the facts and circumstances of the present case, there has been no recovery of drugs in commercial quantity from the applicant. All allegations pertain only to small quantities, and hence the embargo imposed by Section 37 of the Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances Act, 1985 will not be applicable.”
Rajput was found hanging in his Bandra apartment in Mumbai. The All India Institute of Medical Sciences' (AIIMS) Forensic Medical Board, which was looking into the death of the actor, ruled out the possibility of murder in its report on 3 October.
