Drugs case: Bombay HC grants bail to Sushant Singh Rajput’s flatmate

Siddharth Pithani was arrested in May 2021 in a case registered under the Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances Act in the wake of actor Sushant Singh Rajput’s death.

Siddharth Pithani (left) was arrested by the NCB in May 2021 from Hyderabad. (PTI Photo)

The Bombay High Court on Monday granted bail to late actor Sushant Singh Rajput’s flatmate Siddharth Pithani, who was arrested in May last year, in a drugs case filed by the Narcotics Control Bureau (NCB) in 2020 after the actor’s death.

The NCB had booked Pithani under section 27A (financing illicit traffic and harbouring offenders) of the Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances (NDPS) Act, among other offences. Pithani had approached the high court after his default bail plea was rejected by the special NDPS court.

A single-judge bench of Justice Bharati H Dangre granted bail to Pithani on furnishing a personal bond of Rs 50,000, along with sureties.

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Pithani’s lawyers argued that section 27A was wrongly applied as only a small quantity of contraband was seized from him. They added that Pithani was arrested on the basis of statements made by two co-accused – Rajput’s manager Samuel Miranda and cook Dipesh Sawant – and the same was not admissible evidence. Pithani, in his appeal, submitted that there was no evidence of his involvement in illicit drug trafficking.

However, special public prosecutor Shreeram Shirsat argued for the NCB that there were videos on Pithani’s laptop and phone as well as bank transactions through Rajput’s accounts which can be linked to the purchase of contraband.

The special court had earlier rejected regular bail to Pithani stating that he was not entitled to be released at that stage. It had given him interim relief to attend his wedding last June.

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