Kshitij Prasad alleges NCB forced him to falsely implicate Karan Johar in drugs investigation

In yet another startling development, the Former Dharmatic Entertainment (Dharma Productions’ digital firm) employee Kshitij Prasad was arrested on September 26 after being summoned by the Narcotics Control Bureau (NCB) for questioning in the drugs probe.

After the investigation, Kshitij alleged that NCB tried to force him to falsely implicate Bollywood director-producer Karan Johar and the other big names from Dharma Productions. Kshitij’s lawyer, Satish Maneshinde also alleged that his client was being blackmailed and harassed by the NCB officials.

The agency however has denied these claims.

According to a leading news portal in India, Satish Maneshinde said, "The NCB officers, apart from Sameer Wankhede, were courteous to Kshitij and provided him with a comfortable sleeping arrangement. The next morning when his statement recording resumed, Kshitij was categorically informed by Sameer Wankhede in the presence of several other officers, that since he was associated with Dharma Productions, they would let him off if he implicated Karan Johar and some others, falsely alleging that they consumed drugs. Kshitij refused to comply with this despite the pressure being mounted on him as he did not know any of these people personally and did not wish to falsely implicate anyone."

However, Sameer Wankhede denied these claims stating that it is a normal routine for the accused to make such allegations. NCB Deputy DG Jain shared,, "The investigation is being carried out in a professional manner and there is no intended target other than what is revealed during the investigation. The allegations (by Prasad) are absolutely untrue."

On September 26, actresses Deepika Padukone, Sara Ali Khan, and Shraddha Kapoor were summoned for questioning in the drugs scandal. Deepika’s manager Karishma Prakash and Rakul Preet Singh have also been questioned by NCB.

In a statement released last week, Karan Johar revealed that Kshitij Prasad worked with Dharmatic briefly and that he did not know him personally. He also said, "I would like to further 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 individual personally and neither of these two individuals are "aides" or "close aides". NEITHER I, NOR DHARMA PRODUCTIONS CAN BE MADE RESPONSIBLE FOR WHAT PEOPLE DO IN THEIR PERSONAL LIVES. THESE ALLEGATIONS DO NOT PERTAIN TO DHARMA PRODUCTIONS."