The Bombay High Court has allowed Actor Rhea Chakraborty’s brother, Showik, to travel to Australia for work, while temporarily allowing suspension of the Look Out Circular (LOC) against him.
Showik, along with Rhea, is accused in the case registered by the Narcotic Control Bureau (NCB) in the actor Sushant Singh Rajput’s drug-use case.
A division bench of justice Ajey Gadkari and Sharmila Deshmukh allowed the suspension of LOC and permitted Showik to travel to Australia for seven days for a work-related agenda with the condition that his parents have to deposit their passports with the high court. Showik has been directed to submit his travel documents/ details and on return, he has been asked to submit the passport again before the trial court.
CBI advocate Kuldeep Patil opposed the plea contending that Showik was a flight risk. He also questioned the maintainability of the petition.
Advocate Ayaz Khan, appearing for Showik, submitted that the trial court had already granted him permission to travel and it was only because of the LOC that he would not be able to travel. Hence he approached the HC seeking suspension of LOC.
The advocate further said that the CBI had last interrogated Showik in 2020 and since then there has not been any interrogation by the NCB.
An LOC was issued against the Chakraborty siblings on the basis of an FIR registered in Patna by the late Sushant Singh Rajput's father, KK Singh. Later, the matter was transferred to the CBI by the Supreme Court on father’s plea.
Last year, the court had permitted Rhea to travel for the IIFA awards.
Sushant Singh Rajput was found dead at his residence on June 14, 2020.
The NCB charged Rhea for allegedly procuring contraband for the late actor, abetting his “extreme drug addiction”. The CBI has still not concluded its investigation and has also not filed any chargesheet in the case.
