Rhea Chakraborty’s brother Showik Chakraborty was behind bars for a long time owing to the repeated rejections of his bail pleas. It was only last week that a special NDPS court granted him bail. The 24-year old student was earlier arrested in September on charges of procuring drugs and having contacts with drug peddlers. Now, the court that granted him bail has stated that the charge of financing illicit trafficking or trading of drugs does not apply to him in this case, according to a report by TOI.
Earlier, the NCB had claimed that he was involved with the dealers who were involved in drug trafficking. Moreover, Section 27 A of the Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances (NDPS) Act was also invoked on him. According to this, a person can get a maximum punishment of 20 years given that those charges are proven. The special court has added that this particular act does not apply in the case of Showik Chakraborty considering his role in the entire matter.
The said court has also taken into consideration the Bombay High Court’s observations when granting bail to Rhea back in October. For the unversed, she was granted bail on similar grounds stating that her procuring drugs don’t mean she financed any business that involved them. Apart from that, the court took another fact into account that no drugs were recovered from Showik and that the recovery of commercial quantities from a co-accused does not concern the latter. Last week, the court took into consideration that the investigation against Rhea’s brother was complete.
As NCB had submitted evidence only in the form of statements of the five co-accused persons including that of Rhea’s, these have been rendered inadmissible following an order by the Supreme Court that was rolled out a month earlier. On the basis of this, a person cannot be convicted based on confessional statements. The court also observed that Showik Chakraborty is a young student whose antecedents are clear.
