Mumbai: NDPS court ask NCB to file reply on Siddharth Pithani's bail plea

A special Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances (NDPS) court in Mumbai on Friday asked Narcotics Control Bureau (NCB) to file a reply by June 16 on the bail application filed by actor Sushant Singh Rajput's flatmate Siddharth Pithani in connection with the drug case linked to the actor's death.

Pithani is arrested by NCB for procuring and consuming contraband in a case related to Sushant Singh Rajput's death.

Pithani has sought bail on the grounds of parity as earlier accused arrested in this case on same charges are given bail by the court. Advocate Tarak Sayyad represented Siddharth Pithani.

Pithani in his plea argued that according to the Supreme Court order last year statements of witnesses against him, in this case, don't have evidentiary value so they can't be relied on as evidence.

The plea also mentioned that he is scheduled to get remarried later this month so he should be considered for bail.

Earlier on June 4, Siddharth Pithani was sent14-day judicial custody in connection with the drug case linked to the actor's death.

On May 26, the NCB Mumbai unit arrested Sushant Singh Rajput's flatmate Siddharth Pithani from Hyderabad and brought him to Mumbai on a transit warrant obtained from a local court there. Pithani was booked under multiple sections of the NDPS Act, 1985.

Following his arrest, a Chief Metropolitan Magistrate (CMM) court in Mumbai on Friday remanded Pithani to the Narcotics Control Bureau (NCB) custody till June 1.

Earlier on Thursday, the NCB summoned Sushant's bodyguard for the second day in a row, in the drug case linked to the late actor's death.

Apart from that NCB also arrested a drug peddler named Harish Khan in the drugs case linked to the actor's death.

The NCB had also probed Sushant's former domestic helps-- Neeraj and Keshav.

The NCB, which has been probing the drugs angle in the actor's death case, started the investigation after it received official communication from the Enforcement Directorate (ED), in which there were various chats related to drug consumption, procurement, usage and transportation.

The ED had on July 31 last year registered an Enforcement Case Information Report in the late actor's death case after a First Information Report (FIR) was filed by Rajput's father KK Singh against actor Rhea Chakraborty in Bihar on July 28.

Sushant Singh Rajput was found dead at his Mumbai residence on June 14 last year.

( With inputs from ANI )