Former Executive Producer of Dharmatic Entertainment, Kshitij Prasad, had been arrested by the NCB last Saturday.
As per an Indian Express report, Kshitij alleges that he was forced by the bureau to wrongly implicate Karan Johar and other executives of the Production House in the case of alleged consumption of drugs.
Kshitij Prasad reportedly told a Mumbai court that the NCB had forced him to falsely implicate that Karan Johar and his associates consume drugs. NCB’s Deputy DG Mutha Ashok Jain refuted the allegations and said that the probe was progressing in a “professional manner”.
Rhea Chakraborty’s lawyer, Satish Maneshinde, also represents Kshitij Ravi Prasad and the Advocate mentioned that Prasad had been “harassed and blackmailed” by the narcotics bureau to make the allegedly false statement. Kshitij was produced before the metropolitan magistrate by video conferencing and had told the court that his statement had been recorded by zonal director Sameer Wankhede who is in charge of the Mumbai unit of the NCB.
Maneshinde was quoted in the report saying, “The NCB officers apart from Sameer Wankhede were courteous to Kshitij and provided him with a comfortable sleeping arrangement. The next morning when his statement recording resumed, Kshitij was categorically informed by Sameer Wankhede in the presence of several other officers, that since he was associated with Dharma Productions, they would let him off if he implicated Karan Johar, Somel Mishra , Rakhi, Apoorva, Neeraj or Rahil falsely alleging that they consumed drugs. Kshitij refused to comply with this despite the pressure being mounted on him as he did not know any of these people personally and did not wish to falsely implicate anyone.“
Maneshinde also alleged that the NCB team had not found any substance in his client’s home. Apparently, they found nothing during a search of Prasad’s house, “apart from the end bit of a stale and dry cigarette butt in the balcony but they suggested it was ganja and even drew up a panchnama to that effect despite his protests.”
However, denying the allegations, NCB Deputy DG Jain mentioned, “The investigation is being carried out in a professional manner and there is no intended target other than what is revealed during the investigation. The allegations (by Prasad) are absolutely untrue.“
Previously, Karan Johar himself released a statement via Instagram saying he did not know Kshitij Ravi Prasad on a personal basis. “Mr Kshitij Ravi Prasad joined Dharmatic Entertainment in November 2019 as one of the executive producers on contract basis for a project which eventually did not materialise.”