Drugs case: Late actor Sushant Singh Rajput's ex-flatmate Siddharth Pithani gets bail

Pithani was granted bail by a single-judge bench of Justice Bharati Dangre on a bond of Rs 50,000. The Narcotics Control Bureau (NCB) had arrested Pithani in May 2021 from Hyderabad and had been in judicial custody. 

Siddharth Pithani, the former flatmate of late actor Sushant Singh Rajput who was arrested in a drugs case related to the actor's death, was on Monday granted bail by the Bombay High Court.

During his bail hearing, Pithani claimed that he was framed in a false case. To note, Sushant's former girlfriend Rhea Chakraborty, who is already out on bail, is also an accused in the case.

Pithani was granted bail by a single-judge bench of Justice Bharati Dangre on a bond of Rs 50,000. The Narcotics Control Bureau (NCB) had arrested Pithani in May 2021 from Hyderabad and had been in judicial custody. 

Besides other charges, the NCB had booked Pithani under section 27 (A) (financing illicit traffic and harbouring offenders) of the Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances (NDPS). The agency claimed that it had material on record, which prima facie allegedly shows Pithani's involvement in the procurement, transportation, sale, consumption and preparation of the contraband.

Special NDPS court judge DB Mane had rejected Pithani's bail in December last year on the grounds that Pithani and Rajput's housekeeper Dipesh Sawant were allegedly making drug purchase payments using net banking application and referring to them as payments for 'Pooja Samagri'.

Pithani, however, claimed in his bail petition that he was never found in possession of any drugs. He further claimed that there had been no recoveries made thus far to suggest that he could have been involved in drug trafficking.

Sushant was found dead in his Mumbai residence in June 2020. During the course of the investigation into the circumstances of his death, a drug angle emerged. Following this, the NCB initiated an investigation. Based on some WhatsApp chats, the NCB probed an alleged drug supply racket in the film industry. In this regard, the NCB also arrested alleged dealers and some celebrities, including Rhea Chakraborty. Most of them are currently out on bail.