Bollywood actress granted bail as judge says no evidence she supplied drugs to stars

Bollywood actress Rhea Chakraborty has been granted bail nearly a month after she was arrested for allegedly supplying drugs to her late boyfriend, the actor Sushant Singh Rajput.

On Wednesday, a court in the city of Mumbai ordered the actress to be released on bail, saying there was yet no evidence Ms Chakraborty had supplied Mr Rajput with drugs or been involved in any trade in narcotics. There was no trial date set.

Mr Rajput committed suicide in June, after which after which television networks leaked what they claimed were WhatsApp messages from Ms Chakraborty discussing drugs.

The actress was then taken into custody by India's Central Bureau of Investigation for questioning.

Activists slammed Ms Chakraborty's arrest and said she was the victim of a witch-hunt in the patriarchal country.

Santish Maneshinde, the lawyer representing the actress, said he was delighted the "hounding" of Ms Chakraborty would now end.

“The arrest and custody of Rhea was totally unwarranted and beyond the reach of law,” said Mr Maneshinde.

However, the saga has now spiralled into a probe into wider drug use in Bollywood after Ms Chakraborty was allegedly pressured into naming 25 leading industry figures involved in the sale and consumption of narcotics.

The police have since brought in other superstars for questioning, including Deepika Padukone and Sara Ali Khan, although details of the probe have not been made public. They all deny the allegations.

On Saturday, another Bollywood star, Akshay Kumar, posted a four-minute video to his Twitter account in which he admitted there was a drug problem within the film industry.

Mr Kumar said that while the issue needed to be resolved, the Indian public should understand that not all Bollywood stars are narcotics users.