Sushant Singh Rajput's flatmate Siddharth Pithani's bail rejected again in drug case

A special court under the Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances (NDPS) Act on Saturday rejected the bail plea of late actor Sushant Singh Rajput’s flatmate Siddharth Pithani. This was the second time that the court rejected Pithani's bail plea since his arrest in May this year. Earlier, the court had rejected his bail plea in August. 

Siddharth Pithani's bail plea rejected for the second time 

Pithani in the fresh bail plea had underlined that there was no recovery of drugs from him, and he was arrested by the Narcotics Control Bureau (NCB) solely on the basis of statements of co-accused made to the officials of the central agency. He also claimed that the chargesheet against him was not filed within 60 days of his arrest, thereby making him entitled to release on default bail.

NCB, as per reports, opposed his bail plea and argued that his bail application had already been rejected earlier on the merits of the case and he could not seek it again on the same grounds. The central agency also countered the 60-day argument, by pointing out that the timeframe for submitting the chargesheet is 180 days and not 60 days and that he is not entitled to default bail.

It is pertinent to mention here that a detailed order on the bail plea being rejected is yet to be made available.

Siddharth Pithani's arrest

Siddharth Pithani, currently in judicial custody, was arrested by the Narcotics Control Bureau from Hyderabad on May 28 in the drug case linked to Sushant Singh Rajput's death last year. Pithani was arrested on charges of procuring and helping Rajput get narcotics substances under section 27-A of the Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances (NDPS) Act which deals with financing illicit traffic and harboring offenders, NCB had said.

Since his arrest, Pithani has requested bail on several grounds, one of which was his wedding on June 26. For his wedding, Pithani had pleaded for an interim bail, which was rejected by special judge VV Vidwans. He instead granted him parole of 15 days, till July 2.