A Mumbai court yesterday remanded popular female comedian Bharti Singh and her husband Harsh Limbachiya in judicial custody till December 4.
They were arrested on Saturday by the Narcotics Control Bureau (NCB) on drugs charges.
The couple’s lawyer Ayaz Khan filed bail applications that will be taken up for hearing today.
The arrests came after the NCB carried out raids at their home and office in Andheri West which led to alleged seizure of 86.5g of marijuana .
After the seizure, the couple also confessed to consuming drugs, following which they were interrogated and arrested.
“We have arrested Bharti Singh and found a little over 86g marijuana,” NCB official Sameer Wankhede said on Saturday.
The seized quantity attracts a jail term of six months and/or a fine.
Among other things, Harsh has allegedly told the NCB that he used to procure the drugs for self-consumption.
The NCB earlier raided a location in Khar-Danda, a coastal area in Khar suburb, and arrested a 21-year drug trafficker, Wankhede said.
Later bthe NCB raided other locations, including the home and offices of the Bharti-Harsh couple in suburban Andheri West’s fashionable Lokhandwala Complex and Versova.
Both Bharti and Harsh are well-known television personalities producing or hosting programmes, besides appearing in reality shows like Khatron Ka Khiladi, Kapil Sharma Show and other TV serials.
The latest action is part of an ongoing investigations into Bollywood-drugs mafia nexus which the NCB is trying to unravel.
Since September, the NCB has arrested over two dozen persons, including Bollywood actress Rhea Chakbraborty who is now out on bail, her brother Showik and other film industry-related people, drug financiers, suppliers or peddlers, including some foreigners.
As the NCB claims to have unearthed a close link between the drugs mafia and the glamour industry, it has questioned several prominent film personalities amid speculation that many big names may be on its dreaded ‘hit-list’.
Among those probed so far include actresses Deepika Padukone, Shraddha Kapoor, Sara Ali Khan, model-cum-actor Arjun Rampal, and filmmaker Firoz Nadiadwala, whose wife Shabana was arrested but got bail.
The NCB investigations are an offshoot of the probe into the death of Bollywood actor Sushant Singh Rajput, who was found dead at his Bandra home on June 14, which sparked off a huge political controversy.
Comedian Bharti Singh is escorted by Narcotics Control Bureau officers for a medical examination along with her husband Harsh Limbachiya (not pictured), in Mumbai yesterday.
