Chief Metropolitan Magistrate Court or the Esplanade Court in Mumbai, today, granted bail to Shabana Saeed, wife of film producer Firoz Nadiadwala. On furnishing a bail bond of Rs 15,000, she will be released from jail. The court has ordered her to appear before the Narcotics Control Bureau (NCB) on four Mondays to assist in the investigation.
HOW DID SHABANA SAEED GET BAIL?
While the NCB opposed the bail application filed by Shabana, advocate Ayaz Khan appearing on her behalf argued that the amount of drug recovered was very small. "It is [a] small quantity of drug recovered from her. It was for personal consumption and not for any commercial use," said Khan.
Khan also told the court that Shabana has three children below 10 years of age and she lives separately from her husband. So she needs to be home at the earliest to take care of them.
WHEN WAS SHABANA SAEED ARRESTED?
The NCB carried out a raid at producer Firoz Nadiadwala's house on the morning of November 8, Sunday. In the raid, the officials recovered about 10 gm of ganja. Though Firoz Nadiadwala was not present at home during the raid, his wife Shabana Saeed was taken into custody by the NCB and was taken away for questioning.
WHEN DID NCB RAID FIROZ NADIADWALA'S HOME?
On Sunday, the NCB had conducted a raid at the three-storied bungalow of Nadiadwala in Juhu. The bungalow, named Barkat, was searched for about seven hours by NCB officials.
WHEN WAS FIROZ NADIADWALA SUMMONED FOR QUESTIONING
Since Firoz Nadiadwala was not at home, a summon was pasted at the residence asking him to join the investigation on Monday. As instructed, Firoz Nadiadwala presented himself before the NCB on Monday for questioning in the drug consumption case. He was grilled for nearly 9 hours by the NCB.
WHERE IS SHABANA SAEED NOW?
Shabana is currently lodged in Kalyan jail. However, her release papers could not be readied today as the arguments in court took place pretty late in the day. After following the due process of release, Shabana will walk free from prison on Wednesday, November 11.
Firoz Nadiadwala has produced some blockbuster films like Phir Hera Pheri, Awara Pagal Deewana and Welcome, among others.
HOW IS THE BOLLYWOOD DRUG CASE AND SUSHANT SINGH RAJPUT DEATH CASE LINKED?
The NCB, as part of their probe of the drug angle in the Sushant Singh Rajput death case, have chanced upon various Bollywood bigwigs involved in a drug racket of sorts. While Rhea Chakraborty, her brother, Showik Chakraborty, Sushant Singh Rajput's staff members, Samuel Miranda and Dipesh Sawant were earlier arrested by the NCB in the drug case, others like Deepika Padukone, Sara Ali Khan, Shraddha Kapoor and Rakul Preet Singh were summoned for questioning.
Rhea has been released on bail after spending about a month in Mumbai's Byculla jail.
As an offshoot of that investigation, recently, the NCB arrested Arjun Rampal's girlfriend Gabriella Demetriades's brother Agisialos Demetriades in another drug case. He is a South African national. Former Dharma Productions employee Kshitij Prasad was also arrested in the same case earlier. Both Agisialos and Prasad were in touch with Omega Godwin, a Nigerian national arrested for the supply of cocaine in Mumbai. Godwin told the NCB officials about Prasad and Agisialos after which the two were arrested.