After Rhea, Kshitij Prasad pleads innocence in court, requests bail on 'grounds of parity'

Kshitij Prasad, accused by the Narcotics Control Bureau (NCB) for allegedly procuring and financing drug deals for Bollywood celebrities, has filed an application for bail from judicial custody. The hearing for the same will take place on Wednesday, October 14 before the Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances (NDPS) court. The producer, who was formerly associated with a top production house, has claimed that he is innocent and has not committed any crime whatsoever adding that he has been falsely implicated in the case.

Even though Kshitij was named by drug peddler Anuj Keshwani and actor Rakul Preet Singh for being associated with the drug network, he has claimed in his bail application that he was "not part of any change of drug dealers and he has not forwarded the drugs allegedly procured by him to somebody else to earn monetary or other benefits". He has also cited co-accused Rhea Chakraborty's recent release from jail and asked the court for justice on "the grounds of parity".

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In his previous appearance before the court on October 3, he had elaborated in detail the manner in which he was being coerced into falsely implicating certain other persons from the film fraternity by the NCB. His lawyer, Satish Maneshinde (also Rhea's attorney) has stated in the bail plea that "despite having no connection with the subject matter of the present crime, the officials at the central agency have used conjecture, speculation and sweeping assumptions to deliberately rope in Kshitij in order to harass him and exercise undue pressure over him".

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However, the NCB slammed the reports of manhandling Kshitij and claimed that it has been purportedly released by advocate Satish Maneshinde. As per sources, NCB was shocked at Kshitij's reach when influential persons including bureaucrats and politicians were pressurizing the NCB to release him after his arrest. Kshitij was arrested on September 26 and was remanded to NCB custody till October 3.

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As per sources, Kshitij Ravi Prasad named two Bollywood celebrities and 2 producers during his questioning The NCB found his chats with drug peddlers Ankush Arneja, Anuj Keswani and Karamjeet, where he sought hash and MDMA. Ankush Arneja has also been arrested by the NCB. During questioning, he also stated that he 'occasionally' consumed only marijuana, but no hard drugs, sources had said.

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