Drug case: NCB may summon Deepika if needed; Jaya Saha quizzed
Mumbai: The Narcotics Control Bureau (NCB), probing the alleged Bollywood-drug nexus, might summon actress Deepika Padukone if needed, while it again questioned actor Sushant Singh Rajput's talent manager Jaya Saha on Tuesday, officials said.
NCB sources said some WhatsApp conversations purportedly discussing drugs are on the radar of the agency.
Some of these chats were purportedly between Padukone's manager Karishma Prakash and one "D", they said.
An official said the NCB might also summon actors Rakul Preet Singh and Sara Ali Khan, and designer Simone Khambatta this week.
The central anti-drugs agency has already summoned Karishma Prakash and KWAN talent management agency's CEO Dhruv Chitgopekar, but the former could not appear before the agency on Tuesday due to ill-health.
"The NCB will first question Karishma Prakash and might summon actor Deepika Padukone if needed," the official said.
During the NCB's investigation into the drugs angle in Rajput's death case, a wider drug nexus in Bollywood surfaced.
Meanwhile, Rajput's talent manager Jaya Saha was questioned by the NCB for the second consecutive day on Tuesday and has been called again on Wednesday, another official said.
She was quizzed by the NCB in connection with alleged Bollywood-drugs nexus and later allowed to go home, he said.
Padukone's manager Prakash, who was summoned to join the investigation, did not appear before the NCB on Tuesday due to ill-health, the official said.
Prakash has been exempted from appearance before the anti-drug agency till Friday, he said.
Rajputs former manager Shruti Modi will be called for questioning on Thursday, the official said.
The drug law enforcement agency has so far arrested more than 12 people, including Rajput's girlfriend and actress Rhea Chakraborty and her brother Showik, in connection with its probe linked to the case of the actor's death.
Rajput (34) was found hanging at his home in suburban Bandra on June 14.
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Pakistan reports two more polio cases; Total tally now 52
ISLAMABAD: At least two more cases of poliovirus were reported in Pakistan, taking the number of infections to 52 so far this year, a report said on Friday.
“The Regional Reference Laboratory for Polio Eradication at the National Institute of Health has confirmed the detection of two more wild poliovirus type 1 (WPV1) cases in Pakistan," an official statement said.
The fresh infections — a boy and a girl — were reported from the Dera Ismail Khan district of Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa province.
“Genetic sequencing of the samples collected from the children is underway," the statement read. Dera Ismail Khan, one of the seven polio-endemic districts of southern Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, has reported five polio cases so far this year.
Of the 52 cases in the country this year, 24 are from Balochistan, 13 from Sindh, 13 from Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, and one each from Punjab and Islamabad.
There is no cure for polio. Only multiple doses of the oral polio vaccine and completion of the routine vaccination schedule for all children under the age of five can keep them protected.
