E-Paper
Mumbai court sends actor Armaan Kohli in NCB custody for one day
NCB claimed that they have seized more than one gram of cocaine from the actor’s house during the raid
Prefer HTon Google
Bollywood actor and former Bigg Boss contestant Armaan Kohli, who was arrested by the Narcotics Control Bureau (NCB) in a drug case, was remanded in the agency’s custody for a day by a local court on Sunday afternoon. NCB claimed that they have seized more than one gram of cocaine from the actor’s house during the raid.
NCB zonal director Sameer Wankhede led the raid at the actor’s bungalow situated in Vikas Park society at Juhu, on Saturday. The search started around 2pm and went on for six hours, during which a small quantity of cocaine was allegedly seized from his house. The raid was part of the agency’s ‘Rolling Thunder’ operation to bust the network of drug peddlers and suppliers in Mumbai, said Wankhede.
NCB said on Sunday that in accordance with its zero-tolerance policy against drug trafficking in Mumbai, one major drug peddler, Ajay Raju Singh, was intercepted near Haji Ali and 25 grams of MD (Mephedrone) was allegedly recovered from him. Singh is a history sheeter and a huge quantity of ephedrine had been recovered from him by Mumbai’s anti-narcotics cell (ANC) in 2018, an NCB officer said. Singh had been supplying drugs to high-profile people, including in Bollywood, said the NCB officer.
“We have been questioning him and scrutinising his call records to get more details about his drug connection,” added the officer.
Kohli was a contestant on Bigg Boss 7 and made headlines for his volatile temper. He has starred in several films such as Dushman Zamana (1992), Anaam (1993), Qahar (1997) and Jaani Dushman: Ek Anokhi Kahani (2002).
The raid on Kohli was based on Singh’s statement, the officer said. Kohli was questioned and arrested under contravention of small quantity of drugs, financing illicit traffic and harbouring offenders, punishment for attempts to commit offences and for abetment, and criminal conspiracy under the Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances (NDPS) Act.
Under the Rolling Thunder drive, the agency has so far carried out 15 raids in the past two days and arrested eight people, including TV actor Gaurav Dixit and two Nigerian nationals. Contrabands such as MD, charas, MDMA (Methylenedioxymethamphetamine) and Ecstasy tables were seized during these raids, the NCB officer quoted above said.
Dixit was arrested after his name cropped up during actor Ajaz Khan’s interrogation. MD and Charas were allegedly seized from Dixit’s house during a raid by the agency in April, after which he went absconding. Dixit was nabbed and produced in the court on Saturday and sent to NCB’s custody till Monday.
Last year, several celebrities, including Deepika Padukone, Shraddha Kapoor, Sara Ali Khan and Rakul Preet Singh, were questioned by NCB in connection with an investigation into the alleged drug abuse in Bollywood, following the death of actor Sushant Singh Rajput.
The investigation so far has also revealed international links and NCB is probing the routes and contacts used to bring cocaine to Mumbai and the involvement of other traffickers, the officer added.
