Taking ahead the investigation in the Bollywood-drugs mafia links angle in the death of Bollywood actor Sushant Singh Rajput, the Narcotics Control Bureau (NCB) on Tuesday grilled an assistant director who was a friend the late actor.
The NCB summoned Rishikesh Pawar - whose name had first figured during the investigations in September 2020 for allegedly acting as a drug conduit.
The agency sleuths raided Pawar's residence and seized some gadgets and he is now being questioned about his role in the drugs nexus.
On May 1, 2020, Showik Chakraborty - brother of actress Rhea Chakbraborty who was Sushant's girlfriend - had asked the actor's househelp Dipesh Sawant to receive a drug delivery of 50 gms of 'charas', from a person named Dwayne, which was given the next day.
The next month, Sawant received another delivery of 100 gms of 'Ganja' for which he was later among the people arrested.
Siblings Rhea and Showik were nabbed last year and they are currently out on bail.
On June 14, 2020, Sushant, 34, was found hanging at his duplex rented flat in a posh building in Bandra, triggering a massive furore in Bollywood and political circles.
While his death probe was taken over from Mumbai Police by the Central Bureau of Investigation, the Enforcement Directorate and NCB are investigating the financial and narcotics angles.
Top ministers and leaders of the ruling Maha Vikas Aghadi - Shiv Sena, Nationalist Congress Party, and Congress have been repeatedly demanding that the CBI should reveal the findings of the Sushant death probe in the public interest.
While there is no word from the CBI and the ED on their respective probes, the NCB has been carrying out a series of raids effecting drug seizures, and arrested more than two dozen persons, besides questioning several Bollywood personalities in the past six months.