A special court on Monday granted bail to two accused in the drugs case related to late actor Sushant Singh Rajput - celebrity manager Rahila Furniturewala and one Jagtap Anand, stating that the charge against them of financing illicit drug trafficking is prime facie not attracted.
Both had been booked under a stringent provision of the Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances (NDPS) Act dealing with financing illicit trafficking and harbouring offenders, that attracts a punishment of ten years and may extend up to 20 years in prison. On the financing charge on Furniturewala, the Narcotics Control Bureau had alleged that she had paid Rs. 6,000 to her co-accused Anuj Keshwani for MDMA. It was on his statement that she was arrested.
Special judge under the NDPS Act DB Mane said in his order that there is no material at all disclosing her involvement in either financing illicit trafficking or harbouring offenders.
On Anand, the court said that his role as per the prosecution is that customers of a co-accused - his brother Karamjeet Singh Anand, used to pay for drugs by depositing money in his bank account. The court said that there is no allegation about specific procurement, sale or transport of drugs by him personally. It said that merely because a customer transferred an amount into his account, prima facie it cannot be said that the accused is financing for illicit trafficking. Judge Mane noted that he has been in custody since February this year and on the ground of parity too he would be entitled for bail.
In the case of Furniturewala it said that no contraband was seized from her, that she has been in custody since February this year and most of her co-accused with more serious allegations, have already been released on bail.
Furniturewala is a co-accused of Nationalist Congress Party leader Nawab Malik’s son-in-law Sameer Khan in another drugs case connected to seizure of a ganja. In that case too, she had recently secured bail.