Top actors on notice for drugs
The Special Investigation Team (SIT) of the enforcement wing of the excise and prohibition department, on Wednesday, sent notices to 10 prominent Tollywood personalities to appear before it for questioning in the drugs case. Another 35 personalities will get notices in the coming two days.
“Two women, three prominent film stars and a popular director are among the 10 persons,” said a SIT official. Fifty persons from the Telugu film industry have been identified as having links with Calvin, the kingpin of the drug racket unearthed in the city ten days ago. The call data from Calvin's phone showed these persons called him frequently.
Akun Sabharwal, director of enforcement, said, “We can’t judge at the moment who the addicts and suppliers are. We have sent notices to them. We can’t reveal names or the number now. The notices have been sent under Section 67 of the NDPS Act.”
Another SIT official said that section 67 will ensure that the excise authorities can question any person on benefit of doubt. “We will question them on how they are in contact with the accused persons in the drug racket. We requested in the notices that they cooperate with the investigation teams,” the official said.
Two alleged drug peddlers — one an American citizen who was formerly working as an aerospace engineer with NASA, the US space agency, and the other a businessman and a management graduate from ICFAI Business School — were nabbed and 16 units of LSD seized from them by a special task force of the Excise and Prohibition department’s Enforcement wing.
Enforcement officials said that they had arrested Dundu Anish, a 29-year-old aerospace engineer from the US, and Ritul Agarwal (26), who runs a family business.
“Anish, an American passport holder, had studied at Doon School in Dehradun and was earlier with NASA. Over the last few months, he procured drugs including cocaine, LSD and MDMA through the Dark Web from a site called Lunacy, eight times. We nabbed Anish based on credible information,” the officials said.
Later on, they arrested Ritul Agarwal based on the information given by Anish.
“Ritul obtained BBA degree from ICFAI Business School. He also used to procure drugs from the Dark Web by paying in cryptocurrencies such as bitcoins,” the officials said.
The officials added that the US citizen had procured 155 Ecstasy pills, 12 grams of MDMA, 10 dots of LSD and eight grams of cocaine in the last two months through the Dark Web. He also admitted that the seized drugs had been delivered to him by courier bearing The Netherlands markings.