HYDERABAD: The Enforcement Directorate (ED) officials grilled film actress Rakul Preet Singh for around seven hours in the 2017 drug case on Friday. Singh reached the Shakar Bhavan complex where the probe agency office is situated even before the stipulated time in the morning.
The ED initiated money-laundering investigation on the basis of an FIR registered by Telangana prohibition and excise department in 2017 under NDPS Act.
Singh was reportedly asked to appear on September 6 by the ED officials. Singh acknowledged the summons sent to her to join the probe. However, she requested the ED officials to postpone the date. Instead, she was asked to appear on Friday, following which she reached the office around 9 am with a file, though the stipulated time was 10:30 am.
She was questioned regarding suspicious bank transactions after she had submitted her financial transactions for various banks as asked by the ED officials.
This is the second time she was questioned by any Central agency related to a drug case. Earlier she was quizzed by Narcotic Control Bureau (NCB), Mumbai, in a drugs scandal in Bollywood which came to light in connection with actor Sushant Singh Rajput’s alleged suicide.
Singh's name was not surfaced during the drug scandal of 2017. However, her name was included in the ED list reportedly based on the statement from the kingpin of drug racket-Calvin Maskarenhas.
Singh is the third celebrity questioned by the Central investigative agency after Puri Jagannadh and Charmee Kaur. It is pertinent to note that the ED first started a probe into the case in November 2020. ED's summons has once again brought the focus on the case which exposed the alleged drug cartel in the Telugu film industry.
