Sources said the NCB is sure that Kshitij was in contact with some Bollywood celebrities and was part of the illicit drug trade. The NCB would examine the involvement of these celebrities in detail before summoning them for questioning, the sources said.
The NCB had allegedly recovered some documents, WhatsApp chats and a marijuana joint from Kshitij’s home in Versova, leading to his arrest. Kshitij briefly worked with Karan Johar as an executive producer for Dharmatic Entertainment.
NCB officials are also in the process of recovering deleted data from Kshitij’s mobile phone that may shed additional information on the prevalence of drugs in Bollywood. On Monday, the NCB had called in experts as part of the process to recover deleted data from his mobile phone, including chats. The Compliance Directorate carried out a similar exercise to recover deleted information from actress Rhea Chakraborty’s cell phone, which indicated an alleged purchase of drugs for her boyfriend Sushant Singh Rajput. The information was transmitted to the NCB and she was arrested for illicit drug trafficking.
Officials said that Kshitij is an important conduit in the drug union involving Karamjeet Anand, alias KJ, Anuj Keshwani and Ankush Arenja.
Authorities said Kshitij was not cooperating and was trying to derail the investigation by making unsubstantiated allegations that the NCB was forcing him to incriminate celebrities. The NCB issued a press release denying allegations made by Kshitij’s lawyer, Satish Manshinde, that his client was being forced to name Karan Johar. “This is baseless and untrue,” the statement said. “When Kshitij’s involvement in crimes under the NDPS Act was revealed, he was arrested after following due process of law. His lawyer and his family (mother) were informed according to the procedure. He was also allowed to meet his father-in-law and his wife at the MZU office, ”he said.
Officials said they would extract information based on his call detail records, his WhatsApp messages and other data found on his mobile. “Then we would confront him,” the sources said.
According to Kshitij’s request for pre-trial detention, he bought hashish / ganja from Arneja, Keshwani and is therefore part of a drug procurement conspiracy with Arneja and other drug traffickers. Authorities said the link extends further to drug dealer Kaizan Ibrahim, who was in contact with Sushant’s cook, Deepesh Sawant.
NCB officials said they also asked for Kshitiji’s bank details, including his digital wallet platform, to track how many people were buying medicine from him. “We need to know the extent of his network, who his suppliers were, who bought all of them, if there are others who were part of this network and the mode of payment. This is important under the NDPS Act, ”said an official.
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