Executive producer Kshitij Ravi Prasad, who was arrested by the Narcotics Control Bureau (NCB) in the drug abuse case linked to the death of actor Sushant Singh Rajput, appears before a magistrate on Sunday. NCB has requested his custody for nine days until October 5.
Prasad was arrested on Saturday for allegedly receiving contraband from the alleged street vendors who had supplied Showik and Rhea Chakraborty with charas. The agency has said in its lawsuit, filed in the trial court, that during the home search on Friday, they recovered “a joint believed to be remnants of smoked marijuana.”
The agency has claimed that Prasad’s role was revealed during questioning of Sanket Patel, allegedly one of the drug traffickers. Patel claimed that he had delivered Ganja (Weed) to Prasad at his residence in Andheri following Karamjeet Singh’s instructions. Singh is alleged to be a drug dealer with a local network serving the Bollywood fraternity.
“He (Patel) further stated that he delivered Ganja around 12 times to Prasad from May 2020 to July 2020. In addition, Prasad made a payment of 3,500 rupees each time after receiving delivery of 50 grams of Ganja,” it reads in NCB’s application seeking custody of Prasad.
The agency further states that during questioning Prasad admitted to taking Ganja from the arrested alleged drug trafficker Ankush Arneja and Singh through his partner Patel. It should be noted that Patel had claimed that he used to supply contraband to Arneja on Singh’s instructions.
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“From the above, it is clear that Prasad bought Hashish / Ganja from Arneja, and furthermore Arneja used to buy drugs from defendant Anuj Keshwani. Therefore, Prasad is part of the conspiracy to purchase drugs with Arneja and his co-defendants. Prasad was linked to Keshwani and Keshwani was linked to Kaizan Ibrahim, who was also linked to the defendant Dipesh Sawant and Sawant was linked to Showik, Rhea, Rajput ”, reads the request for preventive detention.
See: ‘NCB investigation is fine but …’: Ramdas Athawale asks CBI to investigate Sushant’s death
In disclosing Ganja’s alleged distribution chain, the agency in its application has stated that, “Patel supplied Ganja / Weed to Arneja and said contraband was purchased by him from defendant Singh. Following defendant Singh’s instructions, defendant Patel purchased Charas / Weed and delivered it to Prasad. Samuel Miranda (former head of the Rajput house) and Prasad have received Ganja from Singh and his partner. “
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