Sushant Singh Rajput's death case bought a new angle of drug connection in Bollywood with many prominent Bollywood A listers coming under the NCB scanner. Deepika Padukone, Sara Ali Khan, Rakul Singh and Shraddha Kapoor, who were questioned by the Narcotics Control Bureau (NCB), have all denied substance abuse. They said they were referring to hand-rolled cigarettes in their WhatsApp messages which mention the word “doob”. “They said they don’t even smoke cigarettes,” as per a Times of India report. They have also refuted any knowledge of Sushant Singh Rajput’s alleged drug habit. The NCB officer said technical analysis of their mobile phones which were voluntarily surrendered will clear all doubts. Meanwhile, Kshitij Ravi Prasad former executive producer of Dharmatic Entertainment, owned by Karan Johar, told a magistrate’s court that he was “harassed” to make a statement that would implicate Johar.
Prasad is among the 20 people, including Rhea Chakraborty, who is in custody. An NCB official seeking Prasad's remand said he was a key accused linked to the "drug syndicate" and was being uncooperative.The remand application states that Prasad had taken delivery of ganja from Karamjeet alias Anand Singh and his associates Ankush Arneja and Kaizan Ibrahim, who is connected with Sushant’s manager Samuel Miranda and hence NCB needed his custodial interrogation to probe deeper into his role. Meanwhile, his lawyer Satish Maneshinde has alleged that the NCB was using intimidatory tactics to draw out a confession from Prasad. He said they found nothing during a search of his house "apart from the end bit of a stale and dry cigarette butt in the balcony but they suggested it was ganja and even drew up a 'panchnama' to that effect despite his protests."