A special court last Thursday allowed bank accounts of three accused in the drugs case related to late actor Sushant Singh Rajput to be defreezed. The pleas were made by Showik Chakraborty’s friend Suryadeep Malhotra, a former employee of Dharma Productions - Kshitij Prasad and Rajput’s house manager Samuel Miranda.
One plea was also made by Suryadeep’s father Deepak Malhotra, director of Panther Media India Pvt, not an accused in the case, whose account had also been freezed.
The applicants had cited grounds such as the probe being over. They said that the trial would take time and they needed access to their bank accounts for their day-to-day needs without which they are put to financial hardship. They sought that the Narcotics Control Bureau (NCB), the prosecuting agency in the case be directed to defreeze these accounts.
The agency had opposed the pleas arguing that their probe regarding financial transactions is still ongoing.
Special Judge VV Vidwans said in his order that it is clear from the record that the probe in the case is completed, the chargesheet is filed and that it will take considerable time to conduct trial in the case. As far as the probe on financial transactions is concerned, the judge said that it may be still ongoing, but that the records are maintained of the accounts by respective banks and the same can be available for investigation as well as trial.
