Sahil Shah, the neighbour of late actor Sushant Singh Rajput, has been discharged in the drugs case that blew up after the latter’s suicide in June 2021. Shah was arrested on January 27, 2022, six months after the actor’s death, for allegedly supplying drugs to city-based drug paddlers.
Details of case against Shah
He had surrendered after the sessions court and then the Bombay High Court refused to grant him anticipatory bail after the authorities claimed that he was being probed in two more cases, one of them involving actress Rhea Chakraborty, the late actor's girlfriend.
Till date Shah was arrested only in one case, wherein it was claimed that he supplied ganja to two accused. As per the prosecution case, the Narcotics Control Bureau (NCB) had initiated a campaign against alleged drug paddlers on April 12, 2021. In the raid, the agency had arrested Ganesh Shere and Siddharth Amin with 310gm ganja and Rs1.5 lakh cash. In their statement they alleged Shah’s involvement as the key supplier.
Within a week of Shah’s arrest, the special court had granted him bail, criticising the agency. The special court in its bail order dated February 3, 2022, observed that the agency had failed to mention the antecedents and any WhatsApp messages between the accused. The court deprecated the agency and pointed to the lack of admissible evidence, except the statement of Shere.
Court's observations
Shah’s lawyer Ayaz Khan had filed a discharge plea in August 2023. The court, while allowing the plea, reasserted that applicant has been implicated on the basis of the statement of one accused. The court observed, “When the applicant was arrested, none of the phone numbers were recovered from him. There is nothing on record to show that apart from the statement of the co-accused there is any evidence against the applicant.”
