In a huge development, Gaurav Arya – the Goa businessman whose name has surfaced in the context of a drug nexus exposed from Rhea Chakraborty’s WhatsApp chats accessed by Republic TV – claimed that he never met late actor Sushant Singh Rajput and that he was ‘100%’ being framed in the case. 

Republic TV confronted Gaurav Arya on Sunday as he was departing to Mumbai from Goa where he will face the Enforcement Directorate’s (ED) questioning. On being asked if he knew Rhea Chakraborty, Gaurav Arya revealed that he hadn’t been in touch with her since 2017.

Further, Gaurav Arya claimed that he was going to cooperate completely with the investigative agencies, but claimed not to know why his name had been raised in connection with the ongoing probe in the case. When asked whether he was being framed, he said ‘100%’.    

READ | Sushant Death Probe LIVE Updates: Key Players To Be Cross-examined; Rhea Leaves Home

On Wednesday, several WhatsApp chats between Rhea and hotelier Gaurav Arya surfaced where the duo was seen discussing the buying and selling of banned narcotics and substances in a big contradiction to her lawyer’s statements where he claimed that– “Rhea has never consumed drugs in her life”. The 15-page WhatsApp conversations between Rhea and drug peddlers, handed over to the NCB, indicate that Rhea and her associates had purchased significant quantities of drugs and had appeared to panic when their stash was running out. Another chat had also shown Rhea discussing spiking Sushant Singh Rajput’s tea or coffee with a drug to get a certain ‘kick’. In her interviews to friendly media where she made to slander Sushant as a drug-addict, she claimed to only be the person ‘coordinating’ this.

 READ | Rhea In Hot Water; CBI To Meet NCB As Pithani Makes Drug Nexus Revelation In Sushant Probe

‘Rhea indirectly linked with a smaller drug cartel’

A team of the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) probing the Sushant Singh Rajput death case will meet a unit of the Narcotics Control Bureau (NCB) which has also filed a case against Rhea Chakraborty, sources said on Sunday. Meanwhile, the CBI is expected to question Rhea about the drug angle on her third day of interrogation at the DRDO guesthouse in Mumbai. Sources said that the CBI is looking at a wider drug nexus connected to Bollywood, same as the NCB.

Based on Siddharth Pithani’s revelations, CBI believes Rhea was indirectly linked with a drug cartel that caters to Bollywood clients and knows about its operation, sources informed Republic Media Network, adding that the quizzing of a person named Gaurav Arya will throw more light on this matter.

READ | ‘Rhea Chakraborty & Others Just Tip Of Iceberg’: NCB To Probe Drug Cartel-Bollywood Link

Sources also said that Rhea never used to procure the drugs and marijuana directly, and that Neeraj, Dipesh Sawant, Samuel Miranda and Keshav were tasked to do the job of procuring. The network of drug dealer ‘Chinku Pathan’ in South Bombay and another individual by the name “Immaa” operating in Andheri-Juhu are being probed.

On Friday, Narcotics Control Bureau (NCB) sources told Republic Media Network that Rhea Chakraborty and others “are just the tip of the iceberg”. In a massive newsbreak, Republic TV has learned that the NCB’s scope of the investigation is far larger.

READ | Rhea Chakraborty Shed Crocodile Tears For Sushant: Ashoke Pandit Decrees Interviews Futile

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