The Narcotics Control Bureau is looking at a drug supply syndicate working in Bollywood.
Mumbai:
The Narcotics Control Bureau (NCB) today summoned filmmaker Firoz Nadiadwala in connection with the arrest of his wife for possession of marijuana which put the spotlight on a drug-supply syndicate in Bollywood.
Mr Nadiadwala’s wife, Shabana Saeed, was arrested on Sunday after investigators allegedly found 10 grams of marijuana at their home in Juhu, Mumbai, during a raid, officials said.
NCB Mumbai Zonal Director, Sameer Wankhede, had told news agency PTI earlier that Firoz Nadiadwala was summoned by the anti-drugs agency, but he did not appear.
The Nadiadwala residence was searched on Sunday following the arrest of drug peddler Wahid Abdul Kadir Shaikh in Andheri a few days earlier. As the agency tracked Shaikh’s clients, NCB officers stumbled upon his link to Ms Saeed who had allegedly purchased 10 gm of the contraband from him, according to the NCB.
The agency had earlier arrested four people as part of its crackdown on drug dealers and their clients linked to the Hindi film industry in the past few months.
It had also questioned Bollywood actors Deepika Padukone, Rakulpreet Singh, Shraddha Kapoor, and Sara Ali Khan as a part of the investigation in a separate case.
Today, the NCB also searched the residence of actor Arjun Rampal in connection with a probe into the drugs syndicate in the industry.
The film industry has been hit by allegations of rampant drug abuse after investigations showed that actor Sushant Singh Rajput, who died by suicide on June 14 this year, was addicted to drugs. Following his death, Rhea Chakraborty was arrested by the NCB and released later after the Bombay High Court granted her bail.
“I’ll be a liar if I say that this problem does not exist in our industry. It exists, just like every industry. But every person in every profession is not involved in such problems. This is impossible,” actor Akshay Kumar had said in a short video released in October, addressing the allegations of widespread drug abuse in the film industry.
