Never met Sushant Singh Rajput, saw Rhea Chakraborty in 2017, says Goa hotelier Gaurav Arya

Hotelier
Gaurav Arya has claimed that he had never met Sushant Singh Rajput. Arya had
been summoned by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) in connection with a parallel
probe into allegations of money laundering in the late actor’s case.

On Monday,
ED officials called Arya, who runs Hotel Tamarind and Café Cotinga in Goa for
questioning.

Arya was
quoted as saying by the news agency ANI, “I have no connection with the case. I
never met Sushant Singh Rajput. I met her (Rhea Chakraborty) in 2017.”

He has been
linked to the drugs angle in connection with Sushant’s death at his Mumbai
residence on June 14. His name came up in Rhea’s WhatsApp chat related to
drugs.

The messages
shared between the two purportedly indicate discussion of certain banned
narcotics, they said.

Also read: IPS officer who probed Sushant case tests positive for COVID- 19

The agency
will also summon some other people with whom Rhea, 28, had similarly interacted
in connection with alleged procurement of certain drugs and banned narcotics
apart from talking about some other professional deals.

The agency
is looking at the money laundering angle in this case and hence all such
conversations and entities are required to be questioned to establish facts and
to find out if any criminality is involved, a senior official said.

It had
questioned Rajput’s talent manager Jaya Saha recently after her name allegedly
figured in one of such chats regarding a chemical called CBD (cannabidiol).

She has
denied any wrongdoing during the questioning and is understood to have told the
agency that prescribed amounts of CBD can be used to treat anxiety.

The ED has
also intimated the Narcotics Control Bureau (NCB) about these purported
drugs-linked chats and the anti-narcotics agency is now probing these leads.

Also read: Mumbai Police to provide protection to Rhea Chakraborty

Rhea, the
main accused in the case, her father Indrajit Chakraborty, brother Showik and
multiple staff members of her and Rajput have been grilled by the ED till now.

On Thursday
in Mumbai, the ED opened some bank lockers in the presence of Indrajit
Chakraborty after it had issued prohibitory orders against their operation.

Meanwhile,
the NCB, the third federal investigative agency probing the linked instances
surrounding the death of the 34-year-old actor, is scanning through the details
shared by the ED with it apart from collecting some other information linked to
Rajput and his close associates.

A
three-member team of the NCB had reached Mumbai from Delhi on Thursday and it
held a meeting with the ED team that is investigating the case.

It is
expected that the NCB will soon summon various people who feature in the
“WhatsApp conversations” that were obtained by the ED from two mobile
phones of Rhea after forensic cloning.

Rhea is
expected to be called for the NCB grilling later, they said.

The ED’s
case filed under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) stems from an
FIR filed by Rajput’s father on July 25 with the Bihar Police in Patna against
Rhea, her father, mother Sandhya Chakraborty, brother Showik, Rajput’s manager
Samuel Miranda and Shruti Modi and unknown persons, accusing them of cheating
and abetting his son’s suicide.

Rajput’s
father has also alleged financial irregularities in his complaint to the
police.

In the
complaint, Singh alleged that an amount of Rs 15 crore was siphoned off from
Rajput’s bank account in one year to accounts of persons not known or connected
to the late actor.  However, the ED has not found any direct transaction
made from Rajput’s account to that of Rhea except an instance where it
intercepted a mobile phone message where Rhea allegedly talks about obtaining
details of a debit card used by the late actor from his house manager Samuel
Miranda.  Some cash deals in this case are also under the scanner of the
agency.

Rhea has maintained that she “never
consumed” any banned narcotics and that she will cooperate with all the
probe agencies as a law-abiding citizen.