The court has posted further hearing on the three bail pleas on September 29. (File)Actor Sushant Singh Rajput’s aide Samuel Miranda and two others, arrested by the Narcotics Control Bureau (NCB) in a drugs case related to the actor’s death, informed the Bombay High Court on Friday that neither of them had been found in possession of contraband drugs nor was there any evidence that they had supplied them to Rajput.
Seeking bail, Miranda, Rajput’s domestic aide Dipesh Sawant and alleged drug peddler Abdul Basit Parihar also told the court that they did not fall under the stipulations made under relevant provisions of the Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances (NDPS) Act, under which they are booked by the NCB.
A single-judge bench of Justice Sarang V Kotwal, which was hearing the three pleas, sought to know from the central government whether the interpretation made by applicants was valid. It also sought clarity on the applicability of disputed provisions on the applicants wherein no drugs were seized from them.
The high court further observed that in light of the facts of the case, the outcome of the arguments in the applications would be important as it would affect many such cases under the NDPS Act.
Advocate Taraq Sayed, representing Parihar, submitted the contraband recovered from another accused in the case was in small “commercial quantities” and the drugs were not in possession of the bail applicant. He said charges levelled against Parihar were bailable and sought from the court to release him on bail. He said the reasoning given by the special court to reject his bail plea earlier was “absurd” and the applicant is “unnecessarily languishing behind the bars”.
The HC will hear the arguments by Miranda and Sawant during the next hearing.
Additional Solicitor General Anil Singh, appearing for the Centre and the NCB, said since a decision on the present bail applications will have an effect on other cases he required time to respond to the pleas and explain in detail the probe agency’s stand on various legal issues pertaining to the NDPS Act.
After hearing the submissions, the court said, “The matter involves important questions of law and needs to be heard extensively… It covers all cases, past and present, pertaining to NDPS law and the order in present matters is going to impact many cases. Whatever the court would say in order should not affect actions against drug trafficking. It is a serious offence.”
While adjourning the matter, the bench directed the Centre and NCB to respond to the pleas and also state their position on “important question of laws” including the applicability of Section 27A (punishment for financing drug trafficking and harbouring offenders) of the NDPS Act and if it was bailable in case small commercial quantities of drugs were seized.
The court has posted further hearing on the three bail pleas on September 29.
Another arrest in drugs case
The Narcotics Control Bureau (NCB) on Friday arrested one more person in the drugs case lodged in connection to actor Sushant Singh Rajput’s death probe.
Rahil Vishram (42) was arrested with 928 gm of charas, worth over Rs 4 lakh in the market, from his Versova residence, said officials. He was arrested following the interrogation of Ankush Arenja, another accused in the case, who has been arrested, they added.
In another case, the NCB arrested four accused – Vishal Salwe (25), Jaychetan Raichera (29), Rohan Talwar (29) and Nongthung Lotha (30) – with non-commercial quantity of ganja.
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