Dharmatic Entertainment producer Kshitij Ravi Prasad remanded to NCB custody till 3 Oct in drug probe

A Mumbai court on Sunday remanded Kshitij Ravi Prasad, who was earlier hired as an executive producer by filmmaker Karan Johar, in the Narcotics Control Bureau (NCB)’s custody till 3 October, following his arrest in a drugs case linked to Bollywood actor Sushant Singh Rajput’s death. Prasad had joined Dharmatic Entertainment (sister company of Karan Johar's Dharma Productions) in November 2019 as one of the executive producers on a contract basis for a project, which eventually did not materialise, Johar said in a statement on Friday. Prasad was arrested by the NCB on Saturday after questioning. He was produced before a magistrate court in Mumbai via video conferencing which remanded him in the probe agency’s custody till 3 October for further investigation. The NCB on Saturday recorded statements of actors Deepika Padukone , Shraddha Kapoor and Sara Ali Khan in the drugs probe linked to Rajput’s death and an alleged Bollywood-drugs nexus. Padukone’s manager Karishma Parekh was also questioned by on Friday and asked to be present on Saturday. The probe agency told the court on Sunday that Prasad in his statement said he had procured drugs from another accused Karamjeet Singh Anand and his associates. The probe agency further said the investigation into the case revealed that the accused is a part of conspiracy for drug procurement with other accused persons. He is connected with other accused linked to Rajput’s death case, it said. The investigation into this case is in preliminary stage as revelations made by Prasad are to be verified, the NCB further said. It also said Prasad is indirectly connected with accused Anuj Keshwani, from whom commercial quantity of a contraband was seized. Therefore, it is necessary to interrogate in deep as to whom the accused was delivering the contraband in Bollywood, it added. Prasad’s name cropped up during the NCB’s wider probe into the alleged Bollywod-drugs nexus. On Friday, the NCB also questioned Anubhav Chopra, who earlier worked with Dharma Productions, in connection with the alleged drug-nexus in the Hindi film industry. However, according to Dharma Productions owner Johar, he doesn’t know any of them personally. “He was briefly associated with us for only two months in the capacity of 2nd assistant director for a film, between November 2011 and January 2012 and as assistant director for the short film in January 2013. He has thereafter never been associated with Dharma Productions for any other project,” Johar said. The investigation began three months after Rajput’s passing with actor Rhea Chakraborty's interrogation. The actor has been in jail since 9 September after she was arrested under the Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances (NDPS) Act. Her brother Showik Chakraborty and two of Rajput’s employees have also been arrested. (With inputs from Press Trust of India)