South African model and Bollywood actor Arjun Rampal’s live-in partner Gabriella Demetriades was grilled by the Narcotics Control Bureau (NCB) sleuths for six-long hours for the second consecutive day on Thursday, in connection with the in the much-discussed Bollwyood-drug mafia nexus case.
Thirty-three-year-old Gabriella, whose brother Agisialos Demetriades was arrested in a drugs-related case last month, had earlier been questioned for six hours on Wednesday.
Gabriella’s second round of questioning came a day ahead of the questioning of actor Arjun Rampal, who has been summoned by the NCB to its headquarters on Friday.
The development came on the heels of searches carried out by the NJCB officials at Rampal’s Banda residence for seven hours on Monday.
During Monday’s raid, the NCB officials seized 11 electronic gadgets including a laptop, mobile phones and tablets from there. They also seized some documents from Rampal’s residence.
The NCB officials had also raided two other places at Khar and Andheri. They had also detained a driver working for Rampal and took him to their office for questioning. The driver was let off later in the evening.
The raid on Rampal’s residence, the subsequent questioning of Gabriella and summons issued to Arjun Rampal should be seen in the context of the arrest of Gabriella’s brother Agisilaos Demetriades made by the NCB from Lonavala near Pune on October 19. Agisilaos is alleged to be a part of a larger drug syndicate operating in Bollywood, which is being investigated after the death of actor Sushant Singh Rajput.
Informed NCB sources said that Agisialos was in touch with Omega Godwin, a Nigerian national who had earlier been arrested for supply of cocaine in Mumbai. During his custodial interrogation, Godwin had named Agisialos. Earlier, ex-Dharma Productions employee Kshitij Prasad had earlier been arrested by the NCB in the in connection with the Sushant Singh Rajput’s death-related drug case and expanded Bollywood-drug nexus case.
Sushant, it may be recalled, was found hanging from a ceiling fan in his closed room of his duplex flat at Mont Blanc building at Bandra’s Carter Road in north-west Mumbai on June 14.
The raid on Rampal’s residence had come a day after the NCB officials carried out searches at film producer Firoz A. Nadiadwala’s residence along Gulmohar Cross Road at Juhu Vile Parle Development (JVPD) Scheme in north-west Mumbai. During the searches, the NCB sleuths seized a total of 717.1 gm of Ganja, 74.1 gm charas and 95.1 gm MD (Commercial Quantity) along with Rs 3,58,610. They also seized 10 gm of Ganja from another accused Wahid Abdul kadir Sheikh @ Sultan.
After the seizure of drugs and cash, the NCB officials arrested five persons, including Firoz A. Nadiadwala’s wife Shabana Saeed.
The NCB has registered two drugs cases in the wake of the investigations launched by the CBI into the death of actor Sushant Singh Rajput in June this year upon the directive issued by the Supreme Court
Nearly twenty persons –including Sushant’s girlfriend Rhea Chakraborty and her brother Showik --- were arrested in connection with a case registered by the NCB on August 28, two days after it registered a case suo moto. It registered a second case after it told the Mumbai court that it wants to "to uproot the drug citadel in Mumbai especially in Bollywood”. Subsequently, Rhea was granted conditional bail by the Bombay High Court in the Sushant death-related drug case on October 7, 2020.
As part of the investigations, the NCB had earlier questioned Bollywood’s prominent actresses Deepika Padukone, Sara Ali Khan, Shraddha Kapoor and Rakul Preet Singh.