Mumbai: Narcotics Bureau Control on Friday arrested Siddharth Pithani from Hyderabad in the drugs case linked to Bollywood actor Sushant Singh Rajput's death.
The arrest comes almost two and half months after NCB filed a 12,000-page charge sheet against 33 people, including actress Rhea Chakraborty, her brother Showik and others in the alleged Bollywood-drugs mafia probe case linked to Sushant's death on June 14, 2020, when he was found hanging in his flat.
ALSO READ | Rhea Chakraborty Drops Cryptic Post Ahead Of Sushant Singh Rajput’s Death Anniversary
On March 5, the NCB charge sheet was filed before a Mumbai Special NDPS Court, following two cases registered by the drug law enforcement agency after an intimation from the Enforcement Directorate which was probing the financial angles in Sushant's death.
Earlier, Vikas Singh, lawyer of Sushant Singh Rajput's family had last year found the role of Siddharth Pithani to be extremely dubious. "He is a very intelligent criminal. What he did was, until FIR was registered by the family he was talking to them regularly and trying to help them. The moment FIR was registered, he started helping Rhea.” “The way he has behaved after registration of FIR, the way he is writing email to Rhea when she's a named accused. Helping a named accused in this manner shows complicity between Rhea and him. It is only upon custodial interrogation that the real truth will come out,” he reportedly said.
Several people including Sushant's girlfriend actress Rhea Chakraborty and her brother Showik were arrested in this drugs probe last year.
Siddharth had said he met Sushant at 1 am, a night before his death. Sushant Singh Rajput died by suicide on the morning of June 14 at his Bandra (West) residence.
On August 6 last year, after a recommendation by the Bihar government, the CBI had taken over the probe from the Bihar Police on the orders of the Central government following an FIR lodged by the deceased's father at Patna's Rajiv Nagar police station.
The ‘Dil Bechara’ actor’s friend Siddharth Pithani had alleged that the late actor’s family have been pressurizing him to speak against Rhea to the police. Replying to this, Vikas Singh, the lawyer representing SSR’s family questioned Pithani’s credibility. He revealed that he was the one who was providing information against the actress to Sushant’s family.
On the other hand, Siddharth Pithani also said that Sushant’s family member told him to mention a 15-crore transaction in his statement to the police. He further added that he has no idea about this transaction and will only say things which he believes are true.
Sushant's flatmate Siddharth Pithani, his cook Neeraj and helper Dipesh Sawant were questioned several times by the CBI team last year.