Sushant Singh Rajput death case: Rhea Chakraborty’s brother Showik, Samuel Miranda to be produced in court today

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MUMBAI: The Narcotics Control Bureau (NCB), which is looking into the drug angle in connection with Bollywood actor Sushant Singh Rajput death case, arrested Rhea Chakraborty' brother Showik Chakraborty and Sushant’s house manager Samuel Miranda on Friday (September 4) night.

The duo was arrested after 10 hours of questioning. They will be produced before a Mumbai court on Saturday (September 5).

Earlier on Friday, the NCB also carried out searches at the residences of Showik and Miranda. During the raid, they seized Showik's laptop and mobile phone. The NCB had also told a court that Showik used to order ganja and marijuana from drug-peddler Abdul Basit Parihar, and made payments to him over Google Pay.

An NCB official said that the agency will seek their 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 seized laptops and chats obtained by the agency.

The agency also arrested two others - Abdul Basit Parihar and Kaizan Ebrahim on Friday on charges of peddling drugs, taking the number of arrests in the case to seven.

The fresh arrest clearly shows that the noose around Rhea Chakraborty is tightening, and there is a high possibility that she would also be arrested by the NCB, which has already summoned her for questioning on Saturday. 

The NCB registered a case 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, on August 26 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 of Sushant, after the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) and the ED.

The revelations about the link between Showik and Parihar were made by the NCB in a Mumbai court as Parihar was produced before it. The court sent Parihar to the NCB's custody till September 9. Besides Showik, Miranda and Parihar, the NCB has also arrested Zaid Vilatra, Abbas Lakhani and Karan Arora and seized 'bud' (curated marijuana) from them.