Mumbai: Kshitij Ravi Prasad, the former Dharmatic Entertainment executive producer arrested by the Narcotics Control Bureau (NCB) in a Bollywood-drugs case, has told a special court here that he has been "coerced into falsely implicating" actors Ranbir Kapoor, Dino Morea and Arjun Rampal by the agency officials.
The NCB has dismissed these allegations as "false and baseless".
Interestingly, Prasad's lawyer Satish Maneshinde had earlier told the court that the accused was being harassed and blackmailed to make a statement against filmmaker Karan Johar by NCB officials.
The special Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances (NDPS) Act court on Saturday remanded Prasad to judicial custody till October 6.
In his latest statement before the court, the accused 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."
"Despite me repeatedly stating that I don't said persons...and have no knowledge of allegations against them (sic)," Prasad stated.
He stated since he refused to writesuch false (statement mentioning Kapoor, Morea and Rampal) in his own handwriting, "the complainant (NCB) has been preparing various false statements as per their wishes and trying to coerce me into signing them".
Prasad further stated 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 completely baseless and false. "Neither had we taken these names nor the accused (Prasad) ever mentioned them (during his questioning). We have shown his statement to the court," he said.
According to the NCB, Prasad had procured drugs from another accused Karmjeet and his associates.
The agency had earlier arrested actor and late Rajput's girlfriend Rhea Chakraborty, her brother Showik and others in connection with the Bollywood-drugs probe.
The CBI is separately investigating Rajput's death case, in which Chakrabortys were booked by Bihar police under the charge of abetment to suicide.