Updated: September 27, 2020 8:54:07 pm
The NCB took the phones of the three actors during their questioning on Saturday.
After recovering data from Rhea Chakraborty’s mobile phone, the Narcotics Control Bureau (NCB) is planning a similar exercise with the phones of actors Deepika Padukone, her manager Karishma Prakash, Shraddha Kapoor and Sara Ali Khan. The NCB took their phones during questioning on Saturday.
A senior official said: “We have confiscated the phones of the actors and we will carry out due process as established by law.” One officer said they would like to verify the statements given by the actors with their chat logs. The chats, which would include recovering deleted chats, could also throw up some other names, an official said.
Read also | Bollywood drug case: why Deepika Padukone, Sara Ali Khan, Rakul Preet and Shraddha Kapoor were summoned
In forensic mobile phone cloning, there is a bit-by-bit copy of the data from a particular phone, including erased and overwritten data. Accompanied by a 65 (B) certificate under TI law, the recovered data can also be used in a court of law as evidence.
Deputy Director General (Southwest Region) Mutha Ashok Jain said they have not issued subpoenas to anyone else so far. So far, there have been a total of 20 people arrested in the case, including Kshitij Prasad, a former executive producer for Dharma Productions.
“Currently, investigations are focused on questioning Prasad and seeing if he reveals any information about drug use in Bollywood,” said an official. The official said his investigation had revealed that although Prasad allegedly acquired drugs from drug dealers arrested in the case, he was not providing them to anyone else.
While these arrests focus on FIR No. 16/20 which was registered suo motu by the NCB to investigate alleged drug use in Bollywood, so far no arrests have been made in relation to FIR No. 15/20, which was logged by the NCB based on Rhea’s chats provided by ED. In this case, being investigated by a special operations team from Delhi, statements from Deepika Padukone and her manager Karishma were recorded.
Deepika, who was questioned regarding the WhatsApp chats that allegedly included mentions of marijuana, denied using narcotics, according to NCB sources.
The statements of Sara Ali Khan and Shraddha Kapoor were recorded in relation to both FIRs. During their remarks, the actresses denied drug use although they told the NCB that they had seen Rajput use drugs, according to sources.
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