Sara frequented Sushant’s farmhouse

In a new development in the drug case linked to the death of Sushant Singh Rajput, the manager of the late actor’s farmhouse, Raees, has alleged that he saw Samuel Haokip and Showik Chakraborty ‘rolling papers’ in the farmhouse.

Raees, who was interrogated by the Narcotics Control Bureau (NCB) on Tuesday, also claimed that the team of Chhichhore, including Shraddha Kapoor, had also visited the farmhouse once. He added that Sara Ali Khan, Sushant’s co-star in Kedarnath, was a frequent visitor between November 2018 and January-February 2019.

Meanwhile, a sessions court in Mumbai denied bail to Rhea, one of the accused in the case, reasoning that if she was released, she would alert “other persons” she had named, and they could destroy evidence. The court ruled that Rhea’s alleged offence of procuring drugs for her boyfriend-actor was non-bailable. The argument that the amount of the drugs seized was only 59 grams was nullified by the court.

The drug angle in the Sushant Singh Rajput case emerged when the Enforcement Directorate – which is probing the money-laundering angle of the case – recovered Rhea’s WhatsApp chats and discovered drug-related conversations. The chats were shared with the Narcotics Control Bureau (NCB) and criminal cases were filed against Rhea and others.

Sushant allegedly died by suicide on June 14 after hanging himself to the ceiling. The actor was all of 34. His death sent shockwaves through the country. The case was initially being investigated by the Mumbai Police, which was mainly probing it from the ‘professional rivalry’ angle. However, after the Bihar Police filed an FIR based on Sushant’s father KK Singh’s complaint against Rhea and others, the case took a dramatic turn. The Bihar Police investigated the case for a few days in Mumbai before it was transferred to the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) last month.