A special court in Mumbai has cleared the way for actress Rhea Chakraborty and her family members to regain full access to their frozen bank accounts, marking a new development in the protracted legal fallout in the Sushant Singh Rajput death case.
Court lifts freeze Rhea Chakraborty’s bank accounts
The Narcotics Control Bureau (NCB) froze the accounts in 2020 during an investigation into Rajput’s death, which at the time included allegations of a wider drug ring linked to Bollywood. The agency cited provisions of the Narcotic and Psychotropic Substances (NDPS) Act to block the accounts, but the complainants challenged the validity of this plea in court.
According to court orders, the NDPS Special Court in Mumbai found that the NCB had failed to comply with the provisions of Section 68F of the NDPS Act within the time required by law. Section 68F deals with the confirmation of orders freezing bank accounts and related assets, and the court held that failure to comply with the provision in a timely manner meant that the freeze could not legally remain in force. It was this technical error that led the judge to allow the unfreezing of the four accounts.
Part of the argument before the court was that the delay in taking the required steps had caused the accounts to be frozen for years, affecting the family’s ability to access their own funds. Lawyers for Rhea Chakraborty and her family said the NCB had not completed the necessary confirmation process under the NDPS Act, which the court has now recognized as grounds for lifting the freeze.
The Sushant Singh Rajput case has been one of the most watched investigations in the recent history of Indian entertainment. Rajput, a 34-year-old actor, was found dead at his home in Mumbai in June 2020 and the death was later ruled a case of suicide by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI), which in 2025 concluded its investigation with a clean chit against all named accused, including Rhea Chakraborty and her family. In this final report, the CBI said that there was no evidence to support suicide or financial misconduct.
However, the NCB’s drug-related angle continued separately, leading to the charging and freezing of several bank accounts in 2020. Over the past few years, some of Rhea Chakraborty’s accounts were partially frozen earlier, but the latest order covers the remaining four accounts that were still under the NCB freeze.
The court has yet to issue a final verdict on the drug-related criminal charges that remain pending against those named in the NCB case.
