Actress Rakul Preet Singh appeared before ED office in drug case

Actor Rakul Preet Singh on Friday reached the Enforcement Directorate’s (ED) Hyderabad circle office in connection with a drug case. Earlier on Tuesday, film director Puri Jagannath reached the ED office in Hyderabad to appear before the agency officials in the drugs case. The case pertains to the bust of a drug racket in 2017. The ED has summoned several other film personalities of Tollywood in connection with the case.

The agency has summoned 12 big names of the industry including Rana Daggubati, Ravi Teja, Puri Jagannath, Navdeep for questioning. Many of these celebrities were earlier questioned by a Special Investigation Team (SIT) of the Prohibition and Excise Department of Telangana. The drugs racket was busted on July 2, 2017, when customs officials arrested a musician Calvin Mascarenhas and two others and seized drugs worth Rs 30 lakh from their possession.

They had reportedly told investigators that they were supplying drugs to film personalities, software engineers and even students of some corporate schools. Mobile numbers of some Tollywood celebrities were reportedly found in their contact list.

The Excise Department had constituted an SIT for a comprehensive investigation. A total of 12 cases were registered, 30 people were arrested, while 62 persons including 11 linked to Tollywood were investigated under Section 67 of the Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances (NDPS) Act and Section 161 of the Code of Criminal Procedure.

The SIT had collected blood, hair, nails and other samples from some people who had come before it for questioning and sent them for analysis. Ravi Teja, Charmme Kaur, Mumaith Khan, Jagannath and young actors Tarun Kumar and Navdeep were among the stars questioned by the SIT.

Cinematographer Shyam K. Naidu, actors Subbaraju, Tanish, Nandu and Teja’s driver were also questioned. The SIT filed charge sheets in eight of the 12 cases. However, it gave a clean chit to the film personalities who were questioned as part of the investigation.

The accused against whom cases have been registered include Rafael Alex Victor, a South African national, Puttkar Ranson Joseph, who worked as a manager in the film industry. Joseph was the manager of lead actor Kajal Aggarwal who sacked him after his arrest. However, an NGO alleged that no effort was made to trace the customers of the accused.

Read also: ED questioned Tollywood director Puri Jagannath for 10 hours

The officers had recovered 3,000 units of Lysergic Acid Diethylamide (LSD), 105 grams of MDMA (commonly known as Ecstasy), 45 grams of cocaine and other narcotic and psychotropic substances from the accused.

– with ani input