Over a year after arrest, the Bombay High Court granted bail to Siddharth Pithani, former flatmate of late Bollywood actor Sushant Singh Rajput, observing that prima facie it appeared that he “has not financed any transaction”.
Pitahni was arrested on May 28, 2021 by the Narcotics Control Bureau (NCB) in connection to the drugs case related to the actor’s death. Justice Bharati Dangre granted bail against a personal bond of Rs 50,000.
“In the wake of the material compiled in the charge-sheet, there are no reasonable grounds for believing that the applicant is guilty of financing the illicit traffic in narcotics/drugs,” observed Justice Dangre.
Earlier, a special court had rejected Pithani’s bail on three occasions. He challenged the rejection of the third bail plea, which he had filed after filing the chargesheet. He is facing charges under various sections of the Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances (NDPS) Act, including the stringent section 27A (financing illicit traffic and harbouring offenders).
Pithani had contended in the bail plea that there was no evidence against him to show that he was involved in illicit trafficking of drugs. Further, he contended that he was wrongly booked under section 27A of the NDPS.
The NCB opposed Pithani’s bail plea, contending that there are videos and other evidence on his laptop and phone, in addition to bank transactions through Rajput’s accounts, linked to the purchase of narcotics.
The grounds raised by Pithani have already been considered by the special court during hearings in the earlier bail pleas, said special public prosecutor Shreeram Shirsat. Also, Pithani has not challenged the earlier two bail orders in the HC, he argued.
The NCB had started probing alleged drug links in the film industry and several people following Rajput's death. His girlfriend Rhea Chakraborty, too, was arrested in the case. Currently she is out on bail, along with most other accused. The NCB probe is based on certain WhatsApp chats about the alleged supply of drugs to some actors in Bollywood.
