The Bombay High Court on Monday granted bail to Siddharth Pithani, the former flatmate of actor Sushant Singh Rajput, arrested in a drug case related to the actor’s death. Rajput’s former girlfriend Rhea Chakraborty, who is already out on bail, is also an accused in the case. A single bench of Justice Bharati Dangre granted bail to Pithani on a bond of Rs 50,000. Pithani was arrested by the Narcotics Control Bureau (NCB) in May 2021 from Hyderabad. He is currently in judicial custody. He had been booked under section 27 (A) (financing illicit traffic and harboring offenders) of the Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances (NDPS) Act, among other charges.
Pithani was Sushant’s friend and was also staying with the late actor at his Bandra residence in suburban Mumbai, where SSR was found dead on June 14, 2020. Pithani had told the police he was among the first to see Sushant hanging from the ceiling in his apartment on June 14 last year.
Siddharth Pithani used to work with a graphic design agency as a creative director in 2017. While working in the agency, Pithani had got in touch with Sushant’s close friend Ayush Sharma, who had asked Pithani to come to Mumbai for “better opportunities”. In April 2019, Pithani came to Mumbai where he met Sushant.
Meanwhile, the NCB also filed draft charges against Rhea Chakraborty, her brother Showik and others before a special court in connection with a drug case linked to Sushant Singh Rajput’s death. Special public prosecutor Atul Sarpande said the prosecution maintained charges against all the accused as mentioned in the charge sheet filed before the court.
The prosecution has proposed the court charge Rhea and Showik for consumption of narcotic substances and also for procuring and paying for such substances for the late Bollywood actor. Sushant committed suicide on June 14, at his Mumbai house. Sarpande said the court was scheduled to frame charges against all the accused. However, it couldn’t be done as a few of the accused moved discharge applications.
Besides Rhea, her brother Showik Chakraborty and several others are also arraigned as accused in the case for alleged consumption, possession and financing of drugs. Most of them are out on bail.
(With PTI inputs)
