NCB summons Arjun Rampal again

The Narcotics Control Bureau (NCB) has summoned actor Arjun Rampal for questioning at its Mumbai office on Wednesday.

The actor has been asked to be present before the NCB team, which is conducting an investigation into the alleged drug-use in Bollywood, following the death of actor Sushant Singh Rajput in June this year, an official said.

This is the second time that the anti-drugs bureau will question the model-turned actor in the case. On 13 November, Rampal was questioned by the agency for seven hours.

Rampal was summoned on Wednesday after the NCB obtained some information during interrogation of some of the persons arrested in the drugs case. The agency had conducted searches at Rampal’s residence last month, following which it seized electronic gadgets and some medicines under the Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances (NDPS) Act.

The actor’s partner Gabriella Demtriades was also questioned by the NCB for two days in November. Gabriella’s brother Agisilaos Demetriades was arrested by the bureau in the case in October and it was found that he was in touch with many Bollywood celebrities, the official said.

Rampal’s friend Paul Bartel was also earlier arrested by the NCB in the drugs case. Based on some WhatsApp chats involving drugs, the NCB launched a probe into the alleged drug use in Bollywood after the death of Rajput in June this year.

The central agency had earlier arrested Rajput’s girlfriend, actress Rhea Chakraborty, her brother Showik, some employees of the late actor and a few others under sections of the NDPS Act.

Rhea Chakraborty, her brother, and some other accused were later granted bail.

Meanwhile, a special NDPS court in Mumbai on Tuesday granted bail to Agisilaos Demetriades, brother of Rampal’s partner Gabriella, and two others in a drug-related case. Demetriades was arrested in October after the NCB raided a resort in Lonavala where he was celebrating his birthday and allegedly found 0.8 gm of a sticky brown substance. He was granted bail by Special Judge G.B. Gurao, said his lawyer Kushal Mor.