
The Narcotics Control Bureau (NCB) on Tuesday told a court that is hearing the anticipatory bail application of Karishma Prakash, actor Deepika Padukone’s manager, that it will not take coercive action against her till Saturday, the next date of the hearing.
In reply to the plea filed by Prakash, under scanner in a drugs case lodged following actor Sushant Singh Rajput’s death in June, the NCB said she had remained untraceable and unavailable despite the agency’s summons to her last week.
Prakash, through her lawyers Abad Ponda and Ayaz Khan, told the court that she is ready to cooperate in the investigation and is ready to present herself before the NCB office.
Seeking time for making arguments on the plea, Special Public Prosecutor Atul Sarpande, representing NCB, said that no coercive step will be taken against Prakash till Saturday when the court will hear her anticipatory bail plea. Prakash, in her plea, has said that her custodial interrogation was not required in the case.
On October 27, NCB officers had raided Prakash’s Versova residence when she was not home and allegedly recovered 1.7 gm of charas and at least two bottles of CBD oil. The agency had summoned her for questioning the next day to probe the recoveries. Prakash, however, did not appear before it.
Prakash was questioned by the NCB on September 26 in connection with alleged chats between her, Padukone and Jaya Saha, her colleague at a talent management company. The NCB had claimed that her residence was searched after her name cropped up during the questioning of an accused arrested in the case.
Meanwhile, the special court on Monday granted bail to Nikhil Saldanha, the 25th person to be arrested in the case. Lawyer Satish Maneshinde, appearing for Saldanha, told the court that no recovery was made from him and that he was arrested on the basis of statement made by a co-accused.