Drugs Case: NCB Nabs Sushant's Flatmate Sidharth Pithani in Hyderabad

Hyderabad: The Narcotics Control Bureau (NCB) announced on Friday (May 28th) that it has detained Sidharth Pitani, the late Bollywood actor Sushant Singh Rajput's housemate, in a drug-related case in Hyderabad.

"Pithani has been arrested from Hyderabad," an NCB official told a leading news agency.

Pithani was under investigation last year in the Kai Po Che actor's death case. He was questioned by the NCB, the CBI, and the ED. The Central Bureau of Investigation interrogated him for seven consecutive days.

According to the NCB, a considerable number of narcotics, prohibited drugs, electronic devices, and Indian cash, in addition to international currency, were recovered during the investigation. The charge sheet states unequivocally that the investigation of the accused's gadgets and mobile phone data revealed the purchase and consumption of drugs during the investigation. The recovered medicines were subjected to a chemical analysis.

The case was investigated using the accused's statements, technical evidence such as the accused's phone calls, extensive WhatsApp discussions, bank records, financial transactions, and other statements, as well as documentary evidence. The charge sheet is said to be 11,700 pages long and has been filed in electronic format at the court.

The arrest comes about two and a half months after the agency published a 12,000-page charge sheet against 33 people in connection with the Bollywood-drugs mafia probe tied to Sushant's murder on June 14th, 2020, after he was discovered hanging in his flat.

Following the filing of two cases by the drug enforcement agency in response to an intimation from the Enforcement Directorate, which was investigating the financial elements of Sushant's killing, the NCB filed a charge sheet before a Mumbai Special NDPS Court on March 5.

NCB had earlier registered a case against actress Rhea Chakraborty under the Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances (NDPS) Act in August last year after the Enforcement Directorate (ED) provided them with details about Chakraborty's communication with a few people in which they discussed drugs such as MDMA, LSD, and hash (hashish). The purported information was obtained by the ED from Chakraborty's deleted WhatsApp data.

In connection with the crime, the NCB later arrested several people, including Rhea and her brother Showik.

In his statement to the NCB, Showik said that just once Rhea's card was used to pay for contraband intended for Sushant Singh Rajput and that the rest of the time payments were made by Rajput's then house manager, Samuel Miranda. Showik further said that he never paid or received any money in exchange for obtaining contraband intended for Rajput.