Rhea's questioning opens Pandora's box, NCB set to bust Bollywood-drug mafia nexus

Arrested on drug-related charges, Bollywood actress Rhea Chakraborty's interrogation has opened a Pandora's box. Confronted with documentary evidence, the actress conceded she was in touch with drug peddlers who were also supplying 'buds' (curated marijuana) to various other Bollywood personalities including well-known actors, directors and producers, highly placed sources in the Narcotics Control Bureau(NCB) told IANS.

Based on the revelations made by Rhea, her brother Showik and four key drug peddlers of Mumbai, the NCB has prepared a list of more than two dozen suspects including kingpins of drug trafficking syndicates, peddlers and Bollywood personalities who were procuring drugs ranging from curated marijuana buds to high-quality cocaine. The NCB would soon launch a crackdown on the Bollywood-drug mafia nexus which runs deep in the film industry allegedly linked with underworld gangs.

In the NCB's remand application filed on Tuesday, the apex anti-drug agency has alleged that Rhea and her brother Showik were active members of a drug syndicate.

The NCB says that her brother Showik was procuring drugs from Abdel Basit Parihar and Kaizen Ibrahim on behalf of Rhea. According to sources, during subsequent investigation the NCB discovered that Parihar and Ibrahim were linked to a top drug cartel active in Mumbai. The cartel, through Parihar and Ibrahim, was supplying drugs to other Bollywood-linked persons living in Mumbai's Bandra, Juhu and Andheri neighbourhoods.

Earlier the NCB had arrested another drug trafficker Fayaz Ahmed in Goa on September 2, who was also supplying drugs to Bollywood personalities. During Fayaz's questioning, the agency unravelled the entire network and the Bollywood-drug mafia nexus.

Ahmed revealed that drugs were being transported by means of parcels through the Foreign Post Office in New Delhi. One of the consignments was dispatched by one Dan Patel, a resident of Modugno street, Saint Laurent, Canada. Saint Laurent, a borough of Montreal city in Canada's Quebec state, is infamous for drug cartels and crime syndicates, many of whom have Indian connections.

In his questioning , Fayaz Ahmed has reportedly said that parcels containing curated marijuana were collected either from New Delhi or from a shop located in Calangute-Anjuna Road in Goa. Once the consignment reached Ahmed, the suppliers in Mumbai were contacted. For every one gram of buds, Rs 5000 to Rs 6000 were charged.

The entire racket linked with Canadian drug syndicates was unearthed by Deputy Director(operations)of NCB, KPS Malhotra, who is also supervising the investigations into the Sushant case, in which actress Rhea Chakraborty, her brother Showik and Sushant's manager Samuel Miranda have been arrested.

Tags: Cinema, Showbiz