Bollywood Drug Racket: Deepika Padukone To Appear Before NCB On Friday, Cuts Short Goa Shoot

Bollywood actor Deepika Padukone, who was issued a summon by the Narcotics Control Bureau (NCB) to join the probe into a drugs case, will join the investigation on Friday (25 September).

An NCB source told news agency IANS that Deepika’s legal team has informed the probe agency that she will join the investigation on Friday.

The development came a day after the agency issued a summon to Deepika, the daughter of badminton icon Prakash Padukone who is married to Bollywood actor Ranveer Singh, to join the probe after her alleged chats with her manager Karishma Prakash came to the fore during the investigation.

This summon comes after Deepika has allegedly been identified as asking for drugs like "Hash" on WhatsApp. The chats are said to be from October 2017 wherein Deepika is allegedly trying to procure drugs.

The individual "D" who is allegedly said to be Deepika can be seen having written messages like, "K...Maal you have?", "Hash na?", "Not weed".

The NCB has already arrested Sushant's girlfriend Rhea Chakraborty, her brother Showik, Sushant's house manager Samuel Miranda, personal staff Dipesh Sawant and over 15 others in the case so far. Rhea Chakraborty has been sent to judicial custody till 6 October.

Deepika on Thursday left for Mumbai from Goa, where she was shooting for an upcoming film along with Siddhant Chaturvedi and Ananya Pandey.

Earlier today, the NCB recorded the statement of fashion designer Simone Khambatta for over four hours while the grilling of Sushant’s former manager Shruti Modi is still going on.

The NCB has also recorded the statements of Kwan CEO Dhruv Chitgopekar, producer Madhu Mantena Varma and Sushant’s talent manager Jaya Saha.

(With inputs from IANS)