Bollywood drug probe LIVE updates: Deepika Padukone reaches NCB office for questioning

After grilling Deepika Padukone's manager, Karishma Prakash, and actress Rakul Preet Singh for hours on Friday (September 25), The Narcotics Control Bureau (NCB) officials will today question the Cocktail actress. She reached the NCB office at 9:45 am. She was called in for questioning at 10 am. Apart from Deepika, Sara Ali Khan and Shraddha Kapoor have also been summoned for investigation at 10:30 am.

On Thursday, the NCB grilled Kshitij Prasad, who works as an executive producer at Karan Johar's Dharmatic Entertainment. Earlier, his Mumbai home was raided by the agency and drugs were recovered. Kshitij was in Delhi when he was summoned by the NCB. He reached Mumbai on Friday. Kshitij has been detained by the NCB for further questioning. The agency questioned another former-Dharma Productions employee, Anubhav Chopra, on Friday.

9: 45 am: Deepika Padukone has reached the NCB office for questioning. The actress was called in by the NCB officials at 10 am.

Distancing him from the drug controversy, Karan Johar released a statement on social media. The filmmaker said that he doesn't know the men in question personally. "I would like to state that several media/news channels have been airing news reports that Kshitij Prasad and Anubhav Chopra are my aides/close aides. I would like to place on record that I do not know these individuals personally and neither of these two individuals are aides or close aides," Karan Johar said.

The NCB is likely to investigate Karan Johar's alleged drug party, which was held in 2019. The party was attended by the who's who of Bollywood, including actors like Deepika Padukone, Vicky Kaushal, Ranbir Kapoor, Varun Dhawan, Zoya Akhtar, Shahid Kapoor and Malaika Arora, among others. The celebs can be summoned by the NCB soon

Coming back to Deepika, the NCB revealed that the actress was the admin of a WhatsApp group for drug chats. Jaya Saha and Karishma Prakash confessed of being part of the group. Karishma's WhatsApp chats with Deepika were retrieved by the NCB. In the chats, they are seen discussing drugs.

Sara Ali Khan and Shraddha Kapoor's name cropped up in the drug controversy after a boatman told the NCB that Sushant Singh Rajput used to party at his Lonavala farmhouse. In his statement to the NCB, the boatman, Jagdish Das, had claimed that the scenic location was a party destination for Rajput, his core team and Bollywood friends like Rhea Chakraborty, Sara Ali Khan, Shraddha Kapoor, and arrested drug-peddling suspect Zaid Vilatra, among others.

Rhea Chakraborty, in her statement to the NCB, also confessed that she would party with Sara Ali Khan, Shraddha Kapoor, Rakul Preet Singh and Sushant Singh Rajput at the Lonavala farmhouse.