Director (Enforcement) of Prohibition and Excise Akun Sabharwal said that the Special Investigation Team probing the drug racket had secured a lot of information about ‘rave’ parties that had taken place in and around Hyderabad, the event managers and celebrities in the ‘page 3 circuit’, who were all part and parcel.
“We are not intentionally targeting those in the film industry. We are only going by the information available with us,” he said. As for the four film personalities, including two actors who were interrogated since Wednesday, a lot of information was secured from them about parties being held here, who were involved and the like. A lot of names of those who were regulars were also revealed, he said.
In the continued questioning of film personalities by SIT on Monday, it will be the turn of actor Navadeep, followed by Ravi Teja on Tuesday, Charmee on Wednesday and Mumaith Khan on Thursday. They will be grilled about their partying habits with the focus on what kind of psychotropic substances they were said to have abused and the like, sources said.
Hair and nail samples of director Puri Jagannadh and actor Tarun were collected during interrogation by SIT on Friday and Saturday respectively. The SIT questioned them for six to thirteen hours on how they procured the drugs and used them.
Meanwhile, Prohibition and Excise Commissioner R.V. Chandravadan flagged off a motorcycle rally as part of an awareness drive launched by Telangana Event Organisers Association with the tag line ‘say no to drugs’.
Addressing the gathering, the Commissioner said the onus was on everybody in society to join hands and raise their voice against the menace of drugs. “It is just not possible for people to think it does not involve them and turn their heads away. They have to take this seriously,” he said.
