NCB to produce Showik, Miranda in court; will seek custody for 7 days

Showik Chakraborty and Samuel Miranda, arrested in connection with the drugs probe linked to actor Sushant Singh Rajput's death, are likely to be produced in a Mumbai court on Saturday. An NCB official said that the duo will be produced before a local court and the drug law enforcement agency will seek their custody for seven days.

Mumbai: The Narcotics Control Bureau (NCB), which has arrested Showik Chakraborty, brother of Rhea Chakraborty, and Sushant Singh Rajput's house manager Samuel Miranda, will produce them in a court here on Saturday and the agency will seek their custody for further interrogation.

Showik and Miranda were arrested on Friday after a day-long questioning by NCB as part of its probe into the drug angle in the Bollywood star's death.

According to NCB officials, the duo was arrested after 10 hours of questioning, and after the agency got adequate evidence against them about their involvement in the drug case.

An NCB official said that the duo will be produced before a local court and the drug law enforcement agency will seek their custody for seven days.

They have been arrested under several sections of the NDPS Act, including 20(b), 28, 29, 27(A).

The official said that the offences falling under Section 27 of the NDPS Act are non-bailable.

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The arrest came after it was found that Showik used to order the drugs from another arrested accused Abdel Basit Parihar. Parihar was arrested on Thursday evening and sent to the agency's custody till September 9.

An NCB official said that the agency will seek Showik and Miranda's custody for interrogation and to confront them with the other arrested accused.

The official said that the duo will also be grilled over information from laptops and chats obtained by the agency.

According to NCB, Showik used to order ganja and marijuana from drug-peddler Parihar and make payments to him over Google Pay.

The NCB registered a case on August 26 under various sections of the Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances Act, naming Rhea, her brother, talent manager Jaya Saha, Sushant's co-manager Shruti Modi, and Goa-based hotelier Gaurav Arya, after the Enforcement Directorate wrote to it about the drugs angle.

This followed the discovery of WhatsApp messages between Rhea and Shruti Modi, Miranda and Sushant's flatmate Siddharth Pithani.

NCB is the third Central agency to join the probe into the death case of Sushant, after the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) and the ED.

Earlier on Friday, the NCB also carried out searches at the residences of Rhea, Showik and Miranda. They also seized Showik's laptop and mobile phone.

With agency inputs