Rhea Chakraborty's Bail Application Rejected

[Anta Assamey]

Actor Rhea Chakraborty has been denied bail after her arrest over drugs charges linked to the Sushant Singh Rajput case.

The bail requests of her brother Showik Chakraborty and other accused have also been rejected by a court in Mumbai.

Rhea Chakraborty's earlier bail request was rejected by a magistrate who sent her to jail till September 22.

In her new request, she had retracted her confession and said she was “coerced into making self-incriminatory confessions”.

She said her life is at risk in judicial custody, that she had received rape and death threats and that three investigations had “taken a severe toll on her mental health and well-being”.

Rhea Chakraborty's petition for bail said she had "not committed any crime whatsoever and has been falsely implicated in the case".

But the Narcotics Control Bureau argued that she had conscious knowledge of drugs use by her boyfriend Sushant Singh Rajput and “made herself part of this offence by procuring drugs.”

During a court hearing on the actor's bail plea, the anti-drugs bureau alleged that Rhea Chakraborty used her credit card and payment gateways to facilitate financial transactions related to dealing of illicit drug trafficking.

She also made “voluntary confession” about her involvement during questioning and it is admissible in the court of law, said the agency, countering Rhea Chakraborty's assertion that she had been “coerced into confessing”.

The anti-drugs agency said the drugs financed (by Rhea Chakraborty) were not meant for personal consumption but for supplying them to another person.

“Therefore, Section 27A of NDPS (Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances Act) is applicable and she cannot escape the clutches of law,” it argued.

The agency also told the sessions court that if released on bail, the actor “may tamper with the evidence and also try to win over witnesses using her position in the society and money power”.

The petition argued that her arrest was "unwarranted and without any justification," that her liberty was “arbitrarily curtailed” and that no female officer was present during her interrogation.

Rhea Chakraborty also said she “had no access to any legal advice during her questioning when she was interrogated for a minimum of eight hours at a stretch by multiple male officers”.

Rhea Chakraborty has spent two nights in Byculla Jail, the only prison for women in Mumbai. Her earlier bail request was rejected by a magistrate who sent her to jail till September 22.

The 28-year-old actor was arrested on Monday on charges of buying drugs for her boyfriend Sushant Singh Rajput, a young movie star whose death on June 14 is being investigated by various agencies including the CBI.