Rhea gets bail, out of jail after 28 days
MUMBAI: The Bombay High Court on Wednesday granted bail to actor Rhea Chakraborty in a drugs case related to her boyfriend Sushant Singh Rajput’s death.
The court rejected the argument that celebrities deserve specially harsh treatment in such cases so as to ‘send out a message’. After spending 28 days in jail, Rhea stepped out of the Byculla women’s prison here around 5.30 pm amid a scrum of mediapersons. While granting her bail on a personal bond of Rs 1 lakh, the court asked the actor to appear before the Mumbai police for 10 days and before the Narcotics Control Bureau (NCB, which had arrested her) once a month for the next six months.
Justice Sarang Kotwal of the HC also granted bail to Rajput’s domestic aides Dipesh Sawant and Samuel Miranda, but rejected the bail plea of Rhea’ brother Showik Chakraborty. The court also rejected the bail plea of alleged drug peddler Abdel Basit Parihar.
The HC observed in its order that Rhea did not have any criminal antecedents, and it was unlikely that she would tamper with evidence or affect the probe while out on bail.
Rhea, however, can’t leave Mumbai without the NCB’s permission and for traveling outside the country, she will need permission from the special NDPS court here, the HC said. The NCB has charged Rhea under the stringent Section 27-A of the Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances (NDPS) Act that pertains to “financing and harbouring illegal drug trafficking”. It entails imprisonment up to 10 years in prison and a bar on the grant of bail. The HC also said simply paying for a particular drug transaction does not qualify as financing drug traffic.