A scathing criticism of the anti-drugs agency, the Narcotics Control Bureau (NCB), and its style of investigation has come from senior advocate Vikas Singh, who represented Sushant Singh Rajput's family after the actor's death in 2020.
"The NCB is very anxious to get into media and basically all these cases are being picked up to get into the spotlight," the lawyer told NDTV.
The lawyer's comment comes after the arrest of Shahrukh Khan's son Aryan Khan in a drugs-on-cruise case earlier this month and his subsequent bail.
Mr Singh had represented Sushant Singh's father KK Singh in his legal battle against actor Rhea Chakraborty over the Bollywood star's death in June 2020. Mr Rajput's death by suicide had set off a series of investigations into alleged drug links in the film industry.
Over the last year, the NCB has questioned several film industry personalities and in many of those investigations, personal WhatsApp chats and messages have allegedly been leaked selectively to the media.
Many have attributed these leaks to the Zonal Director of the agency in Mumbai, Sameer Wankhede, who now faces allegations of payoffs from an NCB witness who made the accusations in an affidavit. The Mumbai Police have recorded his statement and a probe has been started. Mr Wankhede has denied the allegations and said it is an attempt to derail the drugs probe. He has approached the Bombay High Court which passed orders saying that he must be given three days' notice before any action is taken against him.
"They are targeting small-time consumers and in Delhi, our children tell us drugs are being consumed by children at parties. If this is the standard of NCB, they should start raiding parties in Delhi as well where powerful people are there," Mr Singh said while discussing Aryan Khan's case.
"It's not fair for them to just pick up Bollywood (Hindi film industry based in Mumbai) and give Bollywood a bad name as if Bollywood is filled with drug addicts. That's not the right attitude of the NCB. Instead of going for the big fish they are just diverting the attention of people," he added.
Aryan Khan, 23, was arrested over WhatsApp chats that the NCB allegedly found on his phone during a search on a cruise ship in Mumbai on October 2. He was sent to Mumbai's Arthur Road Jail on October 8 and was released on bail today. The anti-drugs agency found no drugs on him, but claimed in court that his WhatsApp chats proved his involvement in "illicit drug deals" and links with a foreign drugs cartel.
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