Kshitij Ravi Prasad, a former Dharmatic Entertainment employee arrested in a drug probe, told the Mumbai court on Saturday that he had been "coerced into falsely implicating" actors Ranbir Kapoor, Dino Morea and Arjun Rampal. Prasad made this statement when he was produced before the Spl Judge Gurav for remand by Narcotics Control Bureau (NCB) today, reported news agency PTI. NCB has dismissed these allegations as "false" and "baseless"
On Saturday, the special Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances (NDPS) Act court remanded Prasad to judicial custody till 6 October.
In his statement to the court, Prasad said, "Subsequent to my earlier statement, I have been repeatedly harassed and coerced into falsely implicating Ranbir Kapoor, Dino Morea and Arjun Rampal in the present proceedings."
Prasad also stated that since he had refused to write false statements mentioning Kapoor, Morea and Rampal in his own handwriting, the NCB "has been preparing various false statements as per their wishes and trying to coerce me into signing them." He also added that he was being harassed "mentally, emotionally, and psychologically by the probe agency (sic)".
Special public prosecutor Atul Sarpande told the court that Prasad's allegations were not true. He said, "Neither had we taken these names nor the accused (Prasad) ever mentioned them (during his questioning). We have shown his statement to the court."
The NCB claims that Prasad had procured drugs from Karmjeet (another accused) and his associates.
(With inputs from PTI)
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