The Narcotics Control Bureau (NCB) on Monday summoned actor Arjun Rampal in connection with its ongoing investigation into Bollywood’s alleged drugs racket. This comes hours after the NCB raided his residence in Mumbai, and a day after film producer Firoz Nadiadwala’s wife, Shabana Saeed, was arrested by the bureau.
A flurry of activity was seen outside the actor’s residence, with mediapersons and officials arriving on the scene. The actor was summoned shortly afterwards, news agency ANI, quoted a source as saying.
Earlier, the NCB had arrested Agisilaos Demetriades, brother of Rampal’s girlfriend Gabriella. Reports suggest Agisilaos was a part of a drug syndicate linked to the death of actor Sushant Singh Rajput. The NCB believes Agisilaos was in touch with the drug suppliers who were said to have connections to Sushant’s girlfriend, Rhea Chakraborty.
Rhea was arrested and subsequently released on bail by the bureau, after she spent nearly a month in jail on charges of procuring drugs for Sushant.
During the investigation, Kshitij Prasad, a former executive of Dharmatic Entertainment, told a court that NCB officers made him falsely implicate Arjun, Ranbir Kapoor and Dino Morea. He said that he was retracting the statements.
“I have been repeatedly harassed and coerced into falsely implicating Dino Morea, Arjun Rampal and Ranbir Kapoor in the present proceedings despite me repeatedly stating that I do not know the said persons and have no knowledge of such allegations,” Prasad said in an application, according to the Indian Express.
