Mumbai: The Bombay High Court on Monday directed the Narcotics Control Bureau to file its reply to a bail plea filed by Zaid Vilatra, one of those arrested by the central agency in a drugs case related to the death of actor Sushant Singh Rajput. A single bench presided over by Justice Revati Mohite-Dere accepted the NCB counsel Additional Solicitor General Anil Singh’s request for a week to file the reply and directed the agency to file it by September 30.
Vilatra (20), a resident of Bandra area in the metropolis, was arrested by NCB in connection with the ongoing probe into the death of actor Sushant Singh Rajput. Vilatra moved the Bombay High Court on September 12 seeking bail after it was rejected by the sessions court on September 9.
In his plea filed through advocate Taraq Sayed, Vilatra said he was “innocent” and had been “framed in the case”. Vilatra was arrested on September 4on the basis of information NCB received from Bandra resident Abbas Ali Lakhani, and his alleged drug supplier Karn Arora.
Both Arora and Lakhani were arrested by the NCB in the case in August. In the sessions court, NCB claimed to have recovered Rs 9.55 lakh, as well as some foreign currency, including USD 2,081, from Vilatra.
The agency said Vilatra had stated the seized amounts were sale proceeds from supply of marijuana to many persons. However, in his plea in HC, Vilatra said the contraband recovered from Lakhani and Arora was very small in quantity.
“There is absolutely no nexus between the Applicant (Vilatra) and any contraband of commercial quantity,” the plea read. He also said he had been booked for a bailable offence and yet the sessions court rejected his bail plea.
And the stringent conditions imposed on granting bail under the Act cannot be applicable in his case considering the small, non commercial quantity of contraband recovered from Arora and Lakhani, he said in the plea. “According to the case of the prosecution, the Applicant was arrested on the basis of statements of two persons Abbas Ramzan Ali and Karn Arora who were both allegedly found in possession of total of 69 grams of Ganja which is small quantity,” his plea read.
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