No Bollywood Names In Narcotics List, Say Government Sources

 In  what  could prove to be a  major embarrassment  for a leading news channel that flashed the  names of Sarah Ali Khan , Rakul Preet Singh and dress designer Simone  Khambatta as those named  by Rhea Chakraborty during her  interrogation by the  Narcotics Control Bureau(NCB),  Government sources  that this  writer  spoke to,  outright deny any such “leaks” to the  Channel.

Another news channel  got even more  inventive  thereafter  and mentioned the  names of  casting director Mukesh Chabra  and media manager Rohini Iyer  in  Rhea’s  drug confessions.

All false ,  it seems.

Says  the  source very close  to  the  BJP Government, “Firstly where are these leaks  coming from? Secondly the  NCB is strictly  forbidden from divulging names . Thirdly  I can tell you the names given  out as  the ones mention by Ms Chakraborty are completely false. Ms Chakraborty has  not mentioned any names, and certainly not the names mentioned  by those two  channels.”

This  source calls the  ‘name calling business’ the Arnab Effect.  “Since Arnab’s channel  Republic is getting major TRPs with their   non-stop Sushant-Rhea coverage the other channels, in  their  desperation  to catch up   are putting out hearsay and fantasy as news.”

Do the channels that  are throwing names  from Bollywood into the  viewers’ face know how this kind of  irresponsible name-calling  affects the  families  of those that are  arbitrarily named?

Earlier  NCB deputy-director KPS Malhotra was quoted as  saying, “We have not prepared any Bollywood list. The list earlier prepared was of peddlers and traffickers. It’s getting confused with Bollywood.”