NCB GRILLS ARJUN RAMPAL FOR SECOND TIME IN DRUGS CASE

Mumbai: Actor Arjun Rampal appeared before the Narcotics Control Bureau (NCB) office here on Monday in a drugs case. Rampal, who was summoned last week, had sought time till 22 December to appear before the agency citing “personal reasons.” The NCB had questioned Rampal and his partner, Gabriella Demetriades, last month and arrested Gabriella’s brother Agisilaos in the case.

In November, the agency searched Rampal’s residence in Bandra and seized 11 gadgets, including laptop, mobile phones, pen drives and tablets. As some documents and banned pills were also recovered, Rampal was summoned and questioned on November 13 for nearly seven hours at the NCB office in Ballard Estate. Gabriella was questioned twice.

Sources in NCB have confirmed that Rampal got a backdated prescription from a Delhi-based doctor for a medicine which falls under schedule H of NDPS act which requires doctor’s prescription.NCB has also recorded the doctor’s statement under Section 164 IPC. The agency also questioned another doctor in Mumbai in this regard.

Last month, Rampal was questioned in a drugs case in connection with the seizure of banned painkillers from his home in Bandra West. The NCB had summoned the 47-year-old actor to explain why he was in possession of opioid drug Tramadol.

Arjun Rampal’s partner Demetriades was questioned twice after she was held responsible for the narcotics. NCB involved Rampal and Demetriades in the investigation after they discovered the involvement of Demetriades’ brother Agisilaos Demetriades in drug cases and found that he was in touch with many Bollywood celebrities, said an NCB officer.

Agisilaos was arrested on October 17 from a resort at Lonawala where he was staying with his fiance. NCB officials recovered 0.8 grams of a black-coloured sticky substance purported to be hashish (charas). Alprazolam tablets were also found in a search at his Khar residence.

NCB, which has been investigating the drug angle into late actor Rajput’s death, has till now arrested 28 people, including Bollywood celebrities like comedienne Bharti Singh and her husband Haarsh Limbachiyaa.

Before this, Bollywood actors like Deepika Padukone, Sara Ali Khan, Shraddha Kapoor and Rakul Preet Singh have also been questioned by NCB officials.