Aryan Khan drug case: Ananya Panday quizzed for over 4 hours by NCB, called again to appear on Monday

Bollywood actor Ananya Panday appeared before the Narcotics Control Bureau here for the second straight day on Friday and was questioned for nearly four hours in connection with her alleged WhatsApp chats with Aryan Khan, son of superstar Shah Rukh Khan, arrested in a drugs case, NCB sources said.

Ananya Panday has been again called by the NCB on Monday, a senior official of the central agency said. Her actor-father Chunky Panday accompanied her to the NCB office as he had done on Thursday when she was questioned for the first time over chats linked to the case which relates to alleged seizure of banned drugs from a cruise ship off the Mumbai coast early this month.

The father-daughter duo arrived at the anti-drug agency's office located at Ballard Estate in South Mumbai in a car around 2.20 pm, the sources said. The 22-year-old actor, a new entrant in Bollywood who made her debut in 2019, left the NCB office around 6.20 pm after questioning by the NCB, they said, without providing further details.

NCB Deputy Director General Ashok Mutha Jain told media persons that Ananya Panday has been called again on Monday to take the ongoing process further. Asked if the actor has spoken anything about the alleged WhatsApp chats with Aryan Khan, Jain said he can not share details related to the investigation.

To a query on getting any information about drug peddlers during her questioning, the NCB officer said he has no such information with him. There was heavy deployment of police personnel at the NCB office, where barricades were put up as a large number of media persons had gathered outside.

The NCB is probing the cruise ship drugs case, in which Aryan Khan (23) has been arrested along with 19 others. Aryan Khan is in jail under judicial custody and his bail plea will be heard by the Bombay High Court on October 26. During the investigation, the NCB had found some WhatsApp chats between Aryan Khan and Ananya Panday, the sources said. The NCB officials wanted to gather more information about the chats and hence she was summoned on Thursday and questioned for around two hours. The NCB had seized Ananya Panday's laptop and mobile phone on Thursday.

Meanwhile, a 24-year-old drug peddler was brought to the NCB office for questioning in the early hours of Friday, they said.