Sushant Singh Rajput: Relief for Rhea Chakraborty, court orders NCB to defreeze her accounts; return her laptop, Iphone

Mumbai: Finally after 14 months, actress Rhea Chakraborty has got a little relief in late actor Sushant Singh Rajput’s death case. A special court in Mumbai has ordered the Narcotics Control Bureau (NCB) to defreeze the actress’s her bank accounts and also return her electronic gadgets including a laptop and mobile phones.

Chakraborty had filed a plea seeking the release of her Apple laptop and iPhone, and requesting access to her bank accounts. A special Narcotics Drugs and Psychotropic Substances (NDPS) court accepted her plea on the conditions that she must submit a bond of Rs 1 lakh and not sell or dispose her electronic items until the investigation is over. The court also directed the NCB to defreeze her bank accounts and fixed deposits with the HDFC Bank.

The NCB had seized Chakraborty’s gadgets and frozen the bank accounts in September 2020 after her arrest last year in connection with the probe into the death of actor Sushant Singh Rajput.

The actress in her plea had stated that she needed access to her bank accounts to support herself, her family, pay the salaries of her staff and aides, pay taxes, etc.

The special NDPS court judge D.B. Mane while passing the order noted that since there was “no strong objection” from the NCB investigating officer, Chakraborty was entitled to unfreezing these accounts, and passed a conditional order to this effect.

The NCB had arrested Chakraborty September 9 last year for allegedly procuring drugs for Rajput, who was found dead at his Mumbai apartment on June 14, 2020. The anti-drugs agency had also arrested Chakraborty’s brother Showik. The actress spent almost a month in custody before she was granted bail by the Bombay High Court October 7, 2020.