Dipesh Sawant, 25, the domestic help of late actor Sushant Singh Rajput, has filed a petition with the Bombay High Court seeking compensation of ₹10 lakh after alleging that the Narcotics Control Bureau (NBC) kept him in illegal custody prior to being produced in front of a metropolitan magistrate.
“There is gross violation of fundamental rights of the petitioner by the NCB officials by not producing the petitioner to the nearest magistrate within 24 hours of taking into custody,” the petition filed via advocates Aamir Koradia and Rajendra Rathod stated.
Also read - Bombay High Court Asks Media To Restrain With Reports Regarding Sushant Rajput Case
A division bench consisting of Justices SS Shinde and MS Karnik will hear the petition on November 6. Sawant was accused of interacting with drug peddlers and accepting deliveries of illegal or contraband material. Sawant alleged at the time he was acting on behalf of Rajput.
The petition filed by Sawant’s advocates goes on to state that the NCB took him in custody from his home on September 4 at around 10 PM. It goes on to say that he was only produced in front of a holiday magistrate over 36 hours later on Sep 6 at 1:30 PM. During Sawant’s detention, a co-accused in the case, Kaizan Ibrahim, was produced before a magistrate and subsequently granted bail, the petition added.
Sawant’s advocates stated that his 36-hour detention violated the mandate of Article 22 of the Constitution of India. The petition went on to state that the agency only informed Sawant’s brother Vivek about his arrest at 11:40 AM on September 6, hence violating the Supreme Court guidelines regarding detention established in the DK Basu judgment.
The petitioner also went on to add that all the offences that he was charged under were bailable since it involved a minor quantity of drugs. A single HC bench has previously struck this argument down saying that all offences listed under the Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances (NDPS) Act, 1985 were non-bailable. The bench provided the clarification recently while granting bail to Sawant and a few others arrested by the NCB in connection with the drugs angle.
Also read - Sushant Singh Rajput Death: ED Raids Office Of Director Dinesh Vijan
Share
Tweet
