Hyderabad drugs racket: Navdeep refuses to give samples to SIT officials
Hyderabad: The Special Investigation Team questioned film actor P. Navdeep on Monday on his links with Calvin Mascarenhas and with a pub which is allegedly run by him.
Navdeep, however, said that he had no partnership in any pub. The actor had been called for questioning after officials found his name stored in Mascarenhas’s phone.
According to SIT officials, Navdeep told them that he collaborated with an event management firm recently and that might have been why his mobile number was with the accused person.
Sources in the SIT said that Navdeep co-operated with the interrogation which lasted for 12 hours.
The actor, however, had refused to give the samples of hair, nails and blood, and asked the officials to use proper channels to get them.
The SIT will question art director Dharma Rao alias Chinna on Tuesday.
The SIT says Chinna is a key member in Puri Jagannath’s group. The officials will grill Chinna on Puri Jagannath's role in drug consumption and the information about the drug suppliers.
Lawyer: Calvin has no role in actors getting notices
The lawyer representing Calvin Mascarenhas, the key accused in the major drug case currently under investigation, says that his client is innocent and has been framed.
Revanth Rao Gopalaswamy told the media on Monday that Calvin’s case “has nothing to do with the notices served to Tollywood actors. The notices were served on July 13, while Calvin was interrogated on July 15 and July 16 in the custody of the excise sleuths. So there is no link between his interrogation report and the notices served to film personalities. I am talking now as Calvin is in jail and not in a position to defend himself in the media.”
He said he would be filing a bail plea later. He said jail officials are not giving him access to his client. “Once I get access and take instructions from my client, I can take further legal action,” he said.
He said that “officials have shown commercial quantity of drugs in the alleged panchanama, which is false. Calvin is a responsible person. It is not true that he went to Bangkok. He never went out of the country and his passport has expired. What is appearing in the media is different from what the remand report and the panchanama in our possession say.”
He said that a copy of the interrogation report and any documents filed by investigators have to be shown to the defence counsel, but this has not been done.
Meanwhile, Excise wing enforcement director Akun Sabarwal said, regarding the possible arrest of Tollywood personalities, that “it is too early to answer that. We will take a decision based on evidence available.”
