Rakul Preet Singh arrives at NCB office

Rakul Preet Singh will be questioned by the Narcotics Control Bureau on Friday morning in an alleged drugs nexus in Bollywood. The actor, who reached Mumbai on Thursday, has reached the NCB office. Deepika Padukone is expected to be questioned on Saturday.

She had acknowledged the summons sent to her on Thursday to join the probe, NCB officials have said. Earlier in the day, the actor in an official statement had said she has “not received the alleged summons either at Mumbai or Hyderabad so far”. 

NCB officials, however, said the actor was contacted through various platforms, including a phone number which is available with the agency. “She has acknowledged the summons,” a senior NCB official said later. 

The NCB, which began the probe after a drugs angle came to light in connection with actor Sushant Singh Rajput’s alleged suicide, has now widened its investigation and asked some ‘A-list’ celebrities of the Mumbai film industry, to “join the probe”, an official said on Wednesday.

The NCB on Wednesday summoned actors Deepika Padukone, Shraddha Kapoor, Sara Ali Khan and Rakul Preet Singh, among others, for questioning. 

Earlier, NCB sources had claimed that there was a “reference” to Rakul Preet Singh and Sara Ali Khan in the statement of Rajput’s girlfriend and actor Rhea Chakraborty, who has been arrested in the case. 

On Thursday morning, fashion designer Simone Khambata, who was summoned by the NCB to join the probe, reached the agency’s guest house in south Mumbai around 9.30 am, an official said. 

Her name cropped up in the questioning of some persons during the probe in the matter, he said. 

Rajput’s former manager Shruti Modi also appeared before the NCB probe team on Thursday, the official said.