Actress Deepika Padukone, who was interrogated by the NCB on Saturday in a drug probe linked to Sushant Singh Rajput's death case, gave clarification on her alleged drug chats with her manager, during the questioning. The actress was summoned by the anti-drugs agency after her manager Karishma Prakash’s WhatsApp chats, including purported conversations about drugs with her surfaced. The Happy New Year actress during her interrogation claimed that in the industry, 'maal' is the code word for cigarettes.In the viral chat, Deepika can be seen asking for 'maal' from her manager Karishma and also mention that she needs 'hash' and not 'weed.' When further questioned about the same, Deepika Padukone claimed that these are code words for rolled cigarettes, while weed refers to thick cigarette, hash means thin cigarettes.
Giving clarification on the chats during her interrogation on Saturday, Padukone had denied ‘consuming drugs.’ The mobile phone of Padukone has been seized by the anti-drugs agency in connection with its investigation. NCB opined that all the three actors, namely Deepika Padukone, Sara Ali Khan and Shraddha Kapoor, who were questioned on Saturday, were very well trained and apprised in advance as to what needed to be said during the interrogation. All three spoke in an extremely calculated manner as if they had been briefed beforehand, on what needed to be said in front of the investigative department. Kwan employee, Jaya Saha, who is being termed as the ‘kingpin’ of the case, had also stated that the terms ‘doobies’ and ‘buds’ in the drug chats referred to cigarettes. Moreover, Deepika Padukone’s manager Karishma Prakash, during her round of questioning had also claimed that ‘hash’ was ‘not a drug’. Besides Padukone, actresses Shraddha Kapoor and Sara Ali Khan were also questioned by the NCB separately on Saturday in connection with the alleged drug nexus.The agency had earlier arrested actress Rhea Chakraborty, her brother Showik, Rajput's manager Samuel Miranda and domestic help Dipesh Sawant and some suspected drug peddlers, in its drugs probe. Rhea, who is currently lodged in Mumbai’s Byculla jail, is accused of procuring drugs for Rajput. She was arrested on September 9.