Mumbai: Actor Ananya Panday is summoned again by the Narcotics Control Bureau (NCB) today in connection with the Mumbai cruise drugs case in which Bollywood superstar Shah Rukh Khan’s son Aryan Khan was arrested earlier this month.
This is the third time the actress has been summoned for questioning by the Narcotics Control Bureau (NCB).
Ananya Panday was first summoned last Thursday and was questioned for over two hours. The NCB also seized her laptop and two mobile phones.
She was asked to appear for second round of questioning on Friday and was questioned for nearly four hours. As per sources, NCB officials were unable to find any proof during their questioning of Ananya Panday on Friday and that is why she has been summoned again on Monday.
Ananya Panday was first involved in the case when the NCB found chats referencing drug use between her and Aryan on the latter’s mobile phone.
According to media sources, the NCB recovered chat messages of a conversation between Ananya Panday and Aryan Khan in which the two were discussing procuring ganja.
NCB sources have said, “At one point in the conversation between Aryan Khan and Ananya Pandey, Aryan was talking to Ananya about ganja. Aryan was asking if there could be some ‘jugaad’ to arrange the weed.”
To this, Ananya Panday replied, “I will arrange”.
When NCB showed this chat to Ananya Panday on Thursday during the questioning, she replied, “I was just joking.”
It is important to note that apart from these old WhatsApp chats, there is no evidence yet that Ananya Panday actually arranged drugs.
During interrogation on Thursday, Ananya Panday maintained that she has never consumed drugs and that the chats with Aryan Khan were a year old so she did not remember the details. She said she didn’t know weed is a kind of a drug, sources told India Today.
She also stated, as per sources, that the communication between her and Aryan Khan was only about cigarettes.
Meanwhile, Aryan Khan, who was arrested in the case on October 3, is presently lodged at Arthur Road Jail in Mumbai. The Bombay High Court will hear his bail application on Tuesday, October 26.
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