Zaid Vilatra was the third person to be arrested in the case. (File)A DAY after a special court rejected the bail application of actor Rhea Chakraborty and five others in a drug case connected with actor Sushant Singh Rajput, one of the accused, Zaid Vilatra, has approached the Bombay High Court seeking bail.
The third person to be arrested in the case on September 2, Vilatra in his plea said there is no evidence to establish any nexus between him and the contraband seized from another accused in the case. The special court on Friday had rejected his bail along with Chakraborty, her brother Showik, Rajput’s house staff Samuel Miranda, cook Dipesh Sawant and Abdel Basit Parihar, who have been alleged to have purchased drugs from Vilatra.
In the appeal filed before the High Court, Vilatra said that based on the arrests of two accused, Abbas Lakhani and Karn Arora, the Narcotics Control Bureau (NCB) conducted a search at his home and recovered Rs 9.55 lakh in cash apart from some foreign currency, including US dollars, pounds and dirhams. The NCB has claimed that the money was part of proceeds from the sale of contraband.
Vilatra in his appeal, filed through lawyer Taraq Sayyed, has said no recovery of contraband, which shows that there is no nexus to invoke the Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances Act section 27A pertaining to financing illicit traffic of drugs. He also said Lakhani and Arora, who were arrested before him in August and allegedly found in possession of 69 grams of cannabis, were granted bail.
While a detailed order of the special court rejecting the bail plea is yet to be made available, Chakraborty’s lawyer Satish Maneshinde had said Friday, “Once we get a copy of the court’s order, we will decide on the course of action about approaching the Bombay High Court.”