Haarsh Limbachiya at the NCB office in MumbaiA Mumbai court on Sunday sent comedian Bharti Singh and husband Harsh Limbachiyaa, who have been arrested by the Narcotics Control Bureau (NCB) following seizure of ganja from their house, in judicial custody till December 4. The court will hear their bail pleas on Monday.
The NCB told the Esplanade court that the two have confessed to consuming ganja. Singh is said to have told officers that she would smoke weed procured by her husband.
According to the police, Bharti was arrested on Saturday while Limbachiyaa was arrested early on Sunday.
While Limbachiyaa in his statement disclosed that he purchased ganja from one peddler. He added that he would keep one bag of the contraband at his office and another at his house for consumption.
Bharti Singh was arrested on Saturday
The NCB sought Limbachiyaa’s custody for questioning but did not seek Singh’s custody and told the court that she may be sent to judicial custody.
Defence lawyer Ayaz Khan argued that there is no question of custodial interrogation as the alleged substance recovered is lesser than the ‘small quantity’ as prescribed under the Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances (NDPS) Act.
Khan said, “The drugs seized from them are in very small quantity… The agency has alleged that they have confessed to consuming, so why do they need their custody?”
The magistrate accepted the arguments and noted that custodial interrogation was not required and that the accused have already been questioned for a considerable time on Saturday.
Bharti and Haarsh currently host a comedy show named Khatra Khatra. (Photo: Bharti Singh/Instagram)
NCB officials said that following a tip-off, their team carried out a search operation at the production house of Limbachiyaa located in Versova on Saturday. They recovered a bag with 65 gram of ganja. Later, another search was carried out at his residence, Oberoi Springs in Andheri, from where another bag consisting 21.5 gram of cannabis and unaccounted cash of Rs 1.49 lakh were seized.
NCB officials said they had recently arrested a 21-year-old man from Khar Danda area, who was allegedly involved in drug trafficking. During his interrogation, names of Singh and Limbachiyaa had come up, after which raids were carried out at their residence, said an NCB official.
Singh and Limbachiya have been booked under sections 20(b)(ii)(A) (involves small quantity of drugs) and 8(c) (possession of drugs) and 27 (consumption of drugs) of the NDPS Act.
With PTI inputs