While Deepika was interrogated by the Narcotics Control Bureau at a guest house in Mumbai's Colaba area for a good six hours, Shraddha and Sara were questioned separately by the sleuths at the agency's Ballard Estate office.

"All of them were questioned on the contents of WhatsApp chats retrieved from the mobile phone of Sushant's actress-girlfriend Rhea Chakraborty, which indicated they used drugs," an official told UNB.

"Though Shraddha and Sara have denied consuming drugs, they claimed to have seen umpteen times Sushant taking drugs in his vanity van and during shooting breaks," he said.

Apart from the three actors, Deepika's manager Karishma Prakash was also grilled on Saturday, for the second day in a row. "On Friday, actor Rakul Preet Singh was questioned and she had also denied taking drugs during questioning," the official added. 

A day before, leading Bollywood celebrity designer Simone Khambatta was also grilled in the case that has captivated and polarised India in recent months.

The Narcotics Control Bureau, in fact, widened its probe into the drugs scandal after WhatsApp chats retrieved from Rhea's mobile phone apparently revealed that at least 20 Bollywood celebrities procured banned substances like cannabis, weed and hash from dealers with links to foreign countries.

Also read: Bollywood drugs scandal gets bigger by the day

Meanwhile, Bollywood actor Karan Johar has released a  statement in which he again clarified that no narcotic substances were consumed at the party he had hosted in 2019, which was attended by a number of big names from Bollywood.

Rhea was arrested by the Narcotics Control Bureau on September 9, following days of questioning, in connection with the death of 34-year-old Sushant Singh, whose body was found hanging from a ceiling fan in his Mumbai flat on June 14.

Also read: Bollywood star Deepika quizzed in drug probe