Synopsis: Comedian Bharti Singh and husband Harsh Limbachiyaa were arrested after a raid was carried out at their residence yesterday on charges of drug possession by the NCB.
On Monday, a Mumbai court granted comedian Bharti Singh and husband Haarsh Limbachiyaa bail in a drug case. The couple, who were arrested by the Narcotics Control Bureau (NCB) following the household seizure of the ganja, were sent to judicial custody until 4 December.
For 13 days until December 4, 2020, the NCB had sought custody of Singh and her husband on the premise that he was procuring the drugs that the couple was consuming and that the investigation was at a nascent stage.
The NCB carried out a raid on the Limbachiyaa production house and seized some gram of drugs. On further inquiry, a raid was carried out in the residential buildings of Singh and Limbachiyaa, where some quantities of drugs and some uncounted cash were recovered.
Singh and her husband were arrested on Saturday after Singh made a voluntary statement during the raid on drug use and on account of the seized drugs.
The NCB requested custody on the ground that the investigation of the present case is in the initial stage and it is necessary to verify the disclosures made by the respondents.
Before the vacation Magistrate today, the couple was produced by NCB.
While remanding them to judicial custody, the Court reported the following:
- The amounts supposedly in the couple’s possession were in small quantities.
- For the offences claimed against them the sentence was imprisonment for up to a year.
- The evidence on record only proved that consumption was involved and not drug peddling.
The Court did not consider it appropriate to grant custody to the NCB after a brief hearing as requested by them and sent the couple to judicial custody until 4 December, 2020.
Under Sections 20(b)(ii)(A) (involving small quantities of drugs), 8(c) (possession of drugs) and 27 (consumption of drugs) of the NDPS Act, Singh and Limbachiya were booked.