Rhea to stay in Byculla prison today, bail order tomorrow
A special court in Mumbai will pronounce the order on the bail pleas of actor Rhea Chakraborty and her brother Showik tomorrow. Rhea was arrested on Tuesday while Showik was arrested last week. Both of them were subsequently remanded to judicial custody of the Narcotics Control Bureau (NCB) until September 22. NCB is probing a drugs case related to actor Sushant Singh Rajput's death.
Rhea arrested for procuring banned drugs
Rhea, a 28-year-old actor who had been dating Sushant for a year and left his house merely days before his death, was arrested for procuring banned substances such as marijuana. She was questioned for three consecutive days until her arrest on Tuesday. Her brother Showik, and two staff members of Sushant, viz. Samuel Miranda and Dipesh Sawant, have also been arrested in the case.
She was sent to the Byculla prison on Wednesday
Rhea and the other accused have been booked under Sections 8(c), 20(b)(ii), 22, 27A, 28, and 29 of the Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances (NDPS) Act, 1985. Following her arrest on Tuesday, the actor had spent that night at a lock-up in Mumbai's NCB office. The next morning, she was taken to the Byculla Women's prison facility.
Claiming innocence, Rhea filed a bail plea yesterday
After her bail plea was rejected by a local court late Tuesday, Rhea filed another plea in the Sessions Court. Rhea has claimed that she is innocent and has been "falsely implicated" in the case. She also said she was forced into making self-incriminatory statements while in custody, adding that the offenses, if any, are bailable in nature.
"Travesty of justice," Rhea's lawyer had said about her arrest
Earlier on Tuesday, Rhea's lawyer had condemned her arrest, calling it a "travesty of justice." "Three central agencies hounding a single woman just because she was in love with a drug-addict who was suffering from mental health issues," he had said at the time.
Bollywood's opinion of Rhea remains starkly divided
Notably, many members of the film fraternity have come out in Rhea's support. Filmmakers and actors like Anurag Kashyap and Taapsee Pannu said Rhea was a victim of ingrained issues like patriarchy and misogyny, and hunger for political gains. However, Sushant's former girlfriend, actor Ankita Lokhande has slammed Rhea, saying it was irresponsible of her to arrange drugs for the late actor.
Sushant had died in an apparent suicide in June
Sushant had died in an apparent suicide at his Mumbai home on June 14. Later in July, the late actor's family filed a complaint, accusing Rhea of mentally harassing Sushant and abetting his alleged suicide. The CBI has been tasked with probing the circumstances that led to the actor's untimely death. Meanwhile, Enforcement Directorate is investigating a money laundering case connected to Sushant's death.
