Mumbai: Goa-based hotelier Gaurav Arya – whose name figured in WhatsApp chats of actress Rhea Chakraborty, arrived in here Sunday. Gaurav Arya is here to join the probe. The probe is being conducted to find the alleged use of drugs and money laundering angle in the late actor Sushant Singh Rajput’s death case.
Arya declined to speak with the media in Mumbai. However while boarding the flight at Panaji, he said he had no connection with the case and was being framed.
“I did not know Sushant personally, nor had ever met him. I had met her (Rhea) in 2017… I have no connection whatsoever in the Sushant case,” said Arya.
The owner of Hotel Tamarind and Cafe Cotinga in Goa, Arya will appear Monday morning before the Enforcement Directorate (ED). Later, he is also likely to be questioned by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) and Narcotics Control Bureau (NCB) teams in the city.
Also read: NCB junks Rhea Chakraborty’s blood sample ‘ploy’, hints at hunting down peddlers
Last week Arya’s name cropped in the messages, sent by Rhea. An ED team had visited the Hotel Tamarind in Anjuna, north Goa. However, they found property shut owing to the COVID-19 pandemic restrictions.
The ED team pasted a notice on the hotel doors directing Arya to come and meet ED Assistant Director Rajiv Kumar Monday (August 31) at 11.00am. The notice said he was being summoned in connection with a case filed under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA).
