Hyderabad drug racket: Tollywood celeberities' names revealed!

The July 4th report by The Hindu got the parents of students of renowned schools in Hyderabad worried. According to the report, hundreds of students from affluent schools were identified as customers of the narcotics drug racket busted by the Prohibition and Excise (P&E) department recently. Police landed up in murkier waters as they proceeded with further investigations in a bid to track down the peddlers to put an end to the nexus.

Incidentally, on Tuesday, the prohibition and excise officials nabbed four peddlars working with different companies and charged them of supplying narcotics drugs.

Students and the kingpin

The department has informed the schools and the institutes aboot the nexus and the names of its students who have been pulled into the racket. The authorities have been asked to question these students about the kingpin, but in a discreet manner. While some schools have acted swiftly, there are others who are shrugging off the allegations, saying that they are not responsible for what their students do outside the school premises. 

The department believes that teachers could be the best leads for them since they would know from the children's behaviour who is involved in drugs or not. In a separate report by the Times of India on July 5, it was said that the key suspect in the case,  Kiran alias Bob alias Mountain, who has been guiding the arrested accused throughout is still on the run. Among the arrested accused were Kundan Singh, 23, a BBA graduate operating a car rental company , Aman Naidu, 25, an engineer working at a gaming company , V Nikhil Shetty, 23, a computer engineer from Bowenpally , and V Ravi Kiran, 34, an engineering graduate operating a yoga studio. 

Speaking to the TOI, Akun Sabharwal, enforcement director, prohibition and excise said, "We seized about 100 units of LSD from them." However, what helped them the most was the arrest of the trio before the four were arrested. Police traced the phone calls of Calvin Mascrenhas, 29, Mohammed Abdul Wahed, 20, and his elder brother Mohammed Abdul Quddus, 29 and got led to the next four in the nexus. They also seized 700 dots of LSD worth `20 lakh and 35gm of MDMA worth `1.4 lakh from the trio.

It was at this juncture that the police got hold of names of students who are also involved as customers. 

Tollywood stars involved

After a NASA engineer was arrested for having links with the drug peddler, three Tollywood actors and two actresses were also found to have links with the nexus- either as customers or having links with the peddlers. Following this, the excise department's Special Investigation Team (SIT), issued notices to three actors, two actresses, four producers and a fight master. The excise department also served them notice under section 67 of NDPS act and asked them to appear before the SIT in six days time. 

Following this, Movie Artists Association (MAA) conducted a meeting to discuss the situation and slammed the ones who were involved in the nexus. Another report by the New Indian Express suggests that a total of 10 A-listers from Tollywood have been under the scanner. Without revealing the names, it is said that one of them is a winner of a Nandi Special Jury award and is considered one of the highest paid actors. Another is a three-time Nandi award-winning director whose Mahesh Babu starrer was a blockbuster in 2006. Among the actresses, one is a top Tollywood actress who has also worked with Amitabh Bachchan in a Bollywood flick and the other one is well-known for her item numbers in Bollywood.

The excise department says that more names from the industry are likely to pop up soon. All of them have been circled for their alleged deals in LSD and MDMA. Interestingly, two of the film stars under scanner are already known by Hyderabad Police for their involvement in drugs and drunken driving. One of the artists is also a winner of the National Film Award for best child artiste category. The A-listers have been nabbed based on their WhatsApp conversation with the drug peddlers. 

Recent TV9 reports and other Telugu News Channels, however seem to have a list of names, which includes celebrities like Ravi Teja, Puri Jagannath, Charmy Kaur,
Subbaraju, Tarun, Navadeep, Tanish, Nandu, Mumaith Khan, Shyam K Naidu. Inside reports suggest that a bigger list is likely to surface by evening today.

• telangana
• south
• drug
• peddlers