SSR case: NCB arrests 2 more in drug probe

The Narcotics Control Bureau (NCB) on Tuesday arrested two more person, including school friend of Showik Chakraborty, in connection with the Sushant Singh Rajput suicide and have seized a high-end vehicle of one of the accused that was also used for peddling drugs. The officials said that they also brought Chris Costa to Mumbai from Goa. He was arrested in connection with the drug syndicate and their peddling from Goa to Mumbai.

The arrested accused was identified as Suryadeep Malhotra, who is Showik’s friend. Malhotra was picked up from Mumbai taking the total number of arrests to 18. The NCB have secured the custody of the duo and they will be grilled in connection with their links with Chakrabortys and the suicide probe.

“The specific roles of the duo are being probed and if needed all the arrested accused would be jointly questioned. Malhotra has been remanded to custody till September 18,” said an officer.

The NCB officials earlier confirmed that names of actresses Sara Ali Khan, Rakul Preet Singh and designer Simone Khambatta surfaced while questioning Rhea. The NCB has not ruled out summoning them for questioning.

The agency said that they are also zeroing in on other names that would be indirectly related with the ongoing probe.

The officials said that the six peddlers, who were arrested on Sunday gave a breakthrough in identifying the chain of narcotics that reached Rajput. One of the arrested peddlers Dwayne Fernandes, who was found to be associated with Showik Chakraborty is stated to have supplied drugs to him for Rajput.

Karamjeet Singh Anand, a peddler, has a local distribution channel of drugs in the film industry. Another peddler Sanket Patel is in the distribution chain of Karamjeet and he also delivered narcotic stuff to several celebrities.

Officials said that Sandeep Gupta, who is an auto-rickshaw driver, operates as a bulk supplier of weed to retail dealers like Dwayne. Aftab Fateh Ansari is Gupta’s associate operating wholesale procurement channel of weed for him and taking care of further distribution.

Ankush Arenja runs a kitchen in a plush area of Mumbai and peddles drugs like weed, hash and mephedrone to high profile individuals. Investigation revealed that he would buy the banned substance from Patel and is also connected with the network of Anuj Keshwani (already arrested) and Karamjeet Singh.