JAKARTA - Actress Rhea Chakraborty and her sister Showik underwent a trial for bail on Thursday. The brothers told the Bombay High Court that the Narcotics Control Bureau (NCB) - which is investigating drug cases linked to actor Sushant Singh Rajput's death - had no jurisdiction to initiate the investigation.
Their lawyer Satish Maneshinde told the court that the drug case being handled by NCB should have been transferred to CBI, which is investigating Rajput's death.
The court did not issue any orders on Chakraborty's bail application and suggested that NCB file a countermeasure on Monday.
Rhea and Showik were charged by NCB under various sections of the Narcotics and Psychotropics Act (NDPS). Currently in judicial detention, the two approached the high court earlier this week to challenge an order by the city's NDPS special court that had rejected their bail application.
Maneshinde told a bench chaired by Judge Sarang Kotwal that the Supreme Court, while listening to a request for a CBI inquiry into Rajput's alleged suicide, had ruled that all cases related to death would be investigated by CBI.
"The CBI, which has been investigating the death cases, is also empowered to investigate cases under the NDPS Act," Maneshinde said as quoted by the Hindustan Times, Friday, September 25.
"Therefore, NCB should shift the investigation to CBI after the violation under the NDPS Law is registered," he said.
The lawyer said neither Rhea nor Showik should be charged under the strict section 27A (financing of drug trafficking or port offenders) of the NDPS Act, which deals with the financing of drugs and provides for prison terms of up to 10 years on sentence.
However, the two brothers and those arrested in the case have maintained in their bail plea that NCB confiscated only 59 grams of the drug. This amount is small and cannot be categorized as a commercial amount so the strict provisions of NDPS, 1985, such as Article 27A do not apply.
Lawyers for Anil Singh, who represent NCB, said they would retaliate against all arguments put forward on behalf of the Chakraborty siblings. He did, however, find time to file a written statement in response to a bail application.
Judge Sarang Kotwal decided to continue the trial on September 29.
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