Bollywood actor Deepika Padukone's manager Karishma Prakash, who bas been summoned by the Narcotics Control Bureau (NCB) in a drug case, has not appeared for questioning and remains "untraceable," a police official told PTI on Monday. According to NCB sources, Prakash was summoned after the central agency claimed to have seized 1.7 gm of hashish during a search at her residence here in October-end.
Since then, she has been summoned multiple times by the drug law enforcement agency to join probe and record her statement. However, Prakash has not responded to summons and remains "untraceable", the police official said. As per the sources, besides the contraband, two bottles of CBD oil, a cannabis product, were also found at her residence during the search. Prakash has already applied for anticipatory bail.
The NCB, which is probing alleged nexus between drug peddlers and Bollywood celebrities which came to light after actor Sushant Singh Rajput's suicide, had summoned Prakash on October 28 following seizures at her residence.
Earlier Padukone and Prakash have appeared before the NCB for questioning. Prakash's name cropped up in the interrogation of one of the arrested drug peddlers, said the official. Statements of Padukone and fellow actors Sara Ali Khan, Shraddha Kapoor and Rakul Preet Singh, among others, were recorded by the NCB in September. The NCB had also seized the phones of these three actors and sent them to the forensic department.
The Central agency has so far arrested 23 persons as part of its investigation in the drug case linked to Rajput's death. The late actor's girlfriend, Rhea Chakraborty, one of the accused in the drug case, is out on bail now. The drug law enforcement agency had registered a case on the request of the Enforcement Directorate (ED) after some alleged chats discussing drugs came to the fore in August.
Sushant was found dead in his flat on June 14. Besides NCB, the CBI and ED are probing separate cases in connection with the death of the late actor.