Former Dharma Productions employee Kshitij Prasad has alleged that he was forced by Narcotics Control Bureau (NCB) to falsely implicate Karan Johar and other executives of the production house in the case of alleged consumption of drugs. The agency however, has denied the charge, claiming that the investigation was done in a professional manner. Prasad, who was associated with Dharmatic Entertainment for a brief period, appeared before the court on Sunday through a video conference.On the other hand, lawyer Satish Maneshinde reportedly informed the court that the former was blackmailed and harassed. He also added that Prasad alleged his statement was not recorded as per narration. Moreover, false claims were allegedly added despite his protests. Maneshinde added that Kshitij had told the court that his statement had been recorded by Sameer Wankhede, in-charge of the Mumbai unit of the NCB.
Maneshinde was quoted in the report as saying, “The NCB officers apart from Sameer Wankhede were courteous to Kshitij and provided him with a comfortable sleeping arrangement. The next morning when his statement recording resumed, Kshitij was categorically informed by Sameer Wankhede in the presence of several other officers, that since he was associated with Dharma Productions, they would let him off if he implicated Karan Johar and some others, falsely alleging that they consumed drugs. Kshitij refused to comply with this despite the pressure being mounted on him as he did not know any of these people personally and did not wish to falsely implicate anyone.” In a statement last week, Karan had distanced himself from Kshitij, explaining how he did not know him personally. He had added that Kshitij had only briefly been employed by Karan’s Dharmatic Entertainment, a sister concern of Dharma Productions, in 2019.