The Narcotics Control Bureau on Monday, for the second time in a month, grilled model-turned actor, Arjun Rampal, in the ongoing investigation into the drug connection with Bollywood being investigated by the central agency, officials said.
Last week, Rampal, 47, was summoned, but he wrote to the NCB requesting time until 22 December, citing some ‘family’ obligations.
Earlier, on November 13, after the NCB raided his home and took away about a dozen electronic devices, he was questioned for almost 7 hours.
He had later told media people that he had turned over a medical prescription of an unique painkiller that the NCB had taken for prescription.
In addition to Rampal, his South African girlfriend Gabriella Demetriades and her brother Agisialos Demetriades, who had been detained and later secured bail, were questioned by the NCB.
As the drug investigation moved the needle to other foreign nationals’ involvement, last month, another of Rampal’s associates, Australian Paul Bartel, was arrested.
The NCB has arrested more than two dozen individuals, including film stars, drug dealers, funders, suppliers, etc., so far, unraveling the Bollywood-drug cartel links.
At one point during the investigation, some drug-peddlers in Goregaon assaulted an NCB team on November 23, and two NCB officials were suspended earlier in December pending a probe into suspected ‘lapses’ in their conduct.
Several other famous personalities in the film, such as Deepika Padukone, Shraddha Kapoor, Sara Ali,
In addition to some other industry professionals, Rakul Preet Singh, Bharti Singh, Harsh Limbachiya, were questioned, and last week, the NCB issued a summons to filmmaker Karan Johar.
After the death of actor Sushant Singh Rajput in Bandra, Mumbai, on June 14, the NCB launched a high-profile investigation into the Bollywood drug angle.
In many films such as “Om Shanti Om”, “Rock On!”, “Pyaar, Ishq Aur Mohabbat”, “Raajneeti”, “Housefull” and other blockbusters, Rampal was ranked as an A-lister.
