MUMBAI: Actors Deepika Padukone, Sara Ali Khan, Rakul Singh and Shraddha Kapoor, who were questioned by the Narcotics Control Bureau (NCB), have all denied substance abuse. They said they were referring to hand-rolled cigarettes in their WhatsApp messages which mention the word “doob”. “They said they don’t even smoke cigarettes,” said an NCB official.

They have also refuted any knowledge of Sushant Singh Rajput’s alleged drug habit. The NCB officer said technical analysis of their mobile phones which were voluntarily surrendered will clear all doubts. Meanwhile, a former executive producer of Dharmatic Entertainment, owned by Karan Johar, told a magistrate’s court that he was “harassed” to make a statement that would implicate Johar. His lawyer Satish Maneshinde alleged that NCB recorded his statement under duress and offered him a deal if he implicated Johar.

NCB refuted the allegations. Kshitij Ravi Prasad, who was arrested in the case on Saturday, has been remanded to NCB’s custody till October 3. He’s among 20, including Rhea Chakraborty, who are in custody. An NCB official seeking Prasad’s remand said he was a key accused linked to the “drug syndicate” and was being uncooperative.

The remand application states that Prasad had taken delivery of ganja from Karamjeet alias Anand Singh and his associates Ankush Arneja and Kaizan Ibrahim, who are connected with Sushant’s manager Samuel Miranda and hence NCB needed his custodial interrogation to probe deeper into his role.

Maneshinde alleged that the NCB team was using intimidatory tactics to draw out a confession from him. He said 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.”

He said Prasad was informed by zonal director Sameer Wankhede that since he was associated with Dharma Productions, they would let him off if he implicated either Karan Johar, Somel Mishra , Rakhi, Apoorva, Neeraj or Rahil falsely alleging that they consumed drugs.