Tollywood drugs case back in focus as ED seeks details
Hyderabad, Feb 11: The 2017 drugs case allegedly involving some Tollywood personalities is back in focus as the Enforcement Directorate (ED) has sought all details of the case from the Excise Department of Telangana.
The Central agency has requested the Department to share digital records, call data and statements of accused and confessions of witnesses in the case. The ED also wrote to the Department to provide WhatApp chats of the accused in the case.
This comes days after the Telangana High Court had directed the Telangana government to share all the documents and details related to the case with the ED.
On February 2, the court had asked the government to provide all the details within 15 days after receiving a request from the ED.
The court had told the ED that it can come back to the court if it did not get all the details relating to the case.
The directions were given by the court while hearing a Public Interest Litigation (PIL) filed in 2017 by then MLA and now Congress MP Revanth Reddy, seeking direction to the state government to entrust the investigation to the Narcotics Control Bureau, the ED, the CBI or other central agencies, arguing that the Excise Department is ill-equipped to investigate the case.
ED Joint Director Abhishek Goyal had also told the court that ED was not provided documents and details relating to the court. However, the state government's counsel claimed that all the details were given to the ED.
After hearing arguments from both sides, the court directed the government to provide copies of FIRs, investigation reportsa, nd all other related documents to the ED.
The court, however, said there was no need to order a probe by the CBI or any other agency.
The ED had questioned 12 Tollywood personalities in September last year as part of a money-laundering probe in connection with the case. Actors Rakul Preet Singh, Rana Daggubati, Charmee Kaur, Ravi Teja, Nandu, Navdeep and director Puri Jagannadh were among those who were questioned by the ED based on the chargesheets filed by Excise Department's Special Investigation Team (SIT) against drug trafficker Calvin Mascarenhas.
The SIT had questioned the Tollywood personalities in the case in 2017 but found no evidence against them.
The drugs racket was busted on July 2, 2017 when customs officials arrested Mascarenhas, a musician, and two others and seized drugs valued at Rs 30 lakh from their possession.
They had reportedly told the investigators that they are supplying drugs to film celebrities, software engineers, and even students of some corporate schools. Mobile numbers of some Tollywood celebrities were allegedly found in their contact lists.
A total of 12 cases were registered in connection with the drugs racket. Thirty people were arrested while 62 individuals including 11 people connected with Tollywood were examined by the SIT under Section 67 of the Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances (NDPS) Act and Section 161 of Criminal Procedure Code.
An American, a South African and a national from the Netherlands were among those arrested.
The SIT had collected blood, hair, nail and other samples from some of those who appeared before it for questioning and sent them for analysis.
The SIT filed chargesheet in eight out of 12 cases. It, however, gave a clean chit to the film personalities who were questioned as part of the investigation.