Sushant case: Showik Chakraborty, Samuel Miranda arrested, to be produced in court

Actor Rhea Chakraborty’s brother Showik Chakraborty and Sushant Singh Rajput’s house manager Samuel Miranda were arrested on Friday (September 4) in connection with the probe into drug allegations linked to Rajput’s death.

They were arrested after being questioned by the Narcotics Control Bureau (NCB). The NCB sleuths, along with police officials, raided Showik Chakraborty’s house in Santa Cruz (West) and Miranda’s house in suburban Andheri (West) from 6:30 am. Showik lives with Rhea.

The search teams, which included women officials, were led by KPS Malhotra, the Deputy Director (operations) of NCB, who said the searches were a “procedural” action.

Both Showik and Miranda were handed over the summons to join the investigation during the search, the officials said. “They have intended to go along (with the search team) due to media presence,” an officer said.

They were later brought to the agency’s zonal office in the Ballard Estate area.

The sections pressed against them, he said, are 20(b) that deals with production, manufacture, possession, selling, purchase and transport of cannabis, 28 (punishment for attempt to commit offences), 29 (punishment for abetment and criminal conspiracy) and 27(a) that defines punishment for financing illicit traffic and harbouring offenders.

They will be produced before a local court on Saturday (September 5).

The two are required to be put under custodial interrogation to unravel more details about the procurement, transportation and usage of the narcotics. The agency has a “strong case”, the officer said.

“They intended to go along (with the search team) due to media presence,” the officer said. He said the agency is looking to gather additional evidence through this action and some documents have been seized by the search teams.

He said Rhea (28), Rajput’s live-in partner, is expected to be summoned soon.

The NCB, till now, has arrested three alleged drug peddlers operating in Mumbai in this case: Zaid Vilatra, Abdel Basit Parihar, and Kaizan Ibrahim.

Bandra resident Parihar was arrested after interrogating Vilatra. Parihar is learnt to have “links” with the narcotics case registered against Rhea, 28, and others. Earlier in the day, the NCB told a Mumbai court that Parihar used to procure drugs on Showik’s instructions.

Related news: Sushant death case: Drug peddler points finger at Rhea’s brother Showik

Parihar, who was remanded in NCB custody till September 9, said in his statement that he would procure drugs from Zaid Vilatra and Kaizan Ibrahim as per the instructions of Showik Chakraborty, according to the NCB.

Rajput, 34, was found dead in his apartment on June 14. Rhea is the main accused in the case being probed by the NCB, the Enforcement Directorate on money laundering charges, and the Central Bureau of Investigation.

NCB is probing the drug angle in this case after the ED shared with it a report following the cloning of two mobile phones of Rhea. It has said that it is looking into “the drug citadel in Mumbai, and especially Bollywood” in this case.