Mumbai, Oct 7: The Bombay High Court on Wednesday granted bail to actor-model Rhea Chakraborty – the live-in partner of late Bollywood star Sushant Singh Rajput.
The bail was granted to her on a personal bond of Rs 1 lakh.
"Rhea should mark her presence for 10 days in a police station after release, deposit her passport, not travel abroad without court permission and inform investigating officer if she has to leave Greater Mumbai," the court said.
The bench has also allowed the bail applications of Sushant Singh Rajput's domestic helps Samuel Miranda and Dipesh Sawant. However, the bench has rejected the bail applications of Rhea's brother Showik Chakraborty and Abdel Basith Parihar.
Rhea (28) was arrested by the Narcotics Control Bureau (NCB), on September 8. Her brother Showik (24) who was arrested on September 4 by the NCB.
"We are delighted by the order of the Bombay High Court granting bail to Rhea Chakraborty. Truth and justice have prevailed and ultimately the submissions on facts and law have been accepted by Justice Sarang V Kotwal," her lawyer Satish Maneshinde said.
"The arrest and custody of Rhea was totally unwarranted and beyond the reach of law. The hounding and witch hunt by three central agencies .. the CBI , ED and NCB of Rhea should come to an end. We remain committed to truth. Satya Meva Jayate," he added.
While Rhea is lodged in Women’s Prison at Byculla in Mumbai, Showik is kept in Taloja Jail in the neighbouring Raigad district. Both are in judicial custody till October 20.
They have been accused of sourcing and purchasing durgs for Sushant Singh Rajput – and had been described as “active members of drugs syndicate”.
In the past, their bail applications have been rejected by the Magistrate’s Court and Special NDPS Court following which they had moved the Bombay High Court.
After hearing both the sides last week, Justice VR Kotwal had reserved the order.
The NCB was brought in to investigate the drug angle in the Sushant Singh Rajput case and the larger Bollywood-drug cartel nexus after incriminating WhatsApp chats surfaced during the investigations by the Enforcement Directorate and Central Bureau of Investigation.
During the hearing before the High Court, Rhea’s counsel Satish Maneshinde had among other things argued for the bail applicants that the NCB had no jurisdiction to handle the case after the Supreme Court directed the CBI to investigate the cases relating to Sushant’s death.
The NCB had told the High Court that the Supreme Court has directed the CBI to take over the investigation, if any new case was registered “on the death of Sushant Singh Rajput and the surrounding circumstances of his unnatural death” and the direction “was not with respect to the present case” registered under provisions of the Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances Act, 1985.
“The present applicant (Rhea) is a prominent member of the supply chain of drugs and majorly she is handling finance also…and used to manage finance for drug procurement along with Sushant Singh Rajput,” the NCB had said in its affidavit opposing Rhea’s bail application.
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