Court agrees to Charmmee’s request of investigation under women officers

Some Tollywood celebrities have been under investigation in the Hyderabad drug scam that is making waves in the state since a month. A dozen top Tollywood personalities were being questioned by the Special Investigation Team (SIT) of the Telangana Prohibition and Excise Department.

Leading actress Charmee Kaur was one of the key people scheduled for questioning today. But she approached the Hyderabad High Court seeking the presence of her advocate and women officers during her scheduled questioning by the Telangana’s Excise department.

Her petition read, “I need legal assistance during the enquiry in order to protect my fundamental rights and also to avoid torture, coercion and threat”.

The High Court rejected her plea for the presence of her advocate during the questioning but the court directed the SIT officials to question the actress between 10 am and 5 pm in the presence of women officers. It also accepted Kaur’s request that investigators should not forcibly extract any statement from her.

Justice A Rajsekhar Reddy also said that officials cannot collect blood, hair and nail samples of the actress without her consent.

After the High Court’s verdict on Charmee’s plea, the government lawyer spoke to the media and said that SIT had women officers and they would be present during investigation of women. Blood samples are collected after the written consent was signed by the persons being interrogated. Film actor Navdeep refused to give his blood samples, so they have not been collected.

SIT lawyer questioned the stars as to their reluctance in giving samples. If they are not guilty as they say, why hesitate to give samples. Refusing to give samples is equivalent to non-cooperation to the investigation said the government lawyer.

• Charmmee KAUR
• Hyderabad drug bust
• Tollywood and drugs
• Navdeep