HYDERABAD: Actor Tarun Kumar, son of veteran actress Roja Ramani, allegedly having contacts with the peddlers of LSDs was grilled by the Special Investigation Team at the headquarters of Telangana Prohibition and Excise department in Nampally on Saturday.Tarun who claims to have withdrawn his partnership in a pub long ago, which was a drug haven for several celebrities and the high-class people for sometime, was questioned for over 10 hours by the SIT.
Tarun is the fourth film personality to attend the questioning by the SIT in connection with a major drugs racket busted by the enforcement wing of Excise department. The actor was accompanied by his father Chakrapani at 9.30 am, an hour before the scheduled time.
A team of four officers questioned Tarun on various aspects related to the previous incidents of drug peddling in his knowledge and if he knew any peddlers. Tarun was also questioned about his association with other celebrities and their habits, and also about his links with Calvin Mascarenhas.
Calvin, the alleged kingpin of busted LSD peddling racket in Hyderabad has Tarun’s mobile number among contact list along 1,477 other telephone numbers that included the 11 film personalities summoned by the SIT. Tarun also was reportedly in touch with Calvin and had some conversations regarding the drug deal.“Tarun Kumar is being examined by the SIT. The questioning started at 10.30 am and is going on. He is cooperating and questioning is on,” said the officials.
A letter was addressed to the Directorate of Medical Education, Koti, by excise commissioner R V Chandravadan, requesting to extend services of a medical team to collect blood samples, nails and hair of actor Tarun, in connection with the ongoing drug trafficking investigation. A team of doctors from Osmania General Hospital visited the SIT office in Nampally and collected the blood, nails and hair samples of Tarun for analysis.
Sleuths sprung a surprise on Tarun
Meanwhile, the SIT has called a Clues team to collect the nail scrapings and saliva samples of Tarun, to send for forensic analysis. The nail scrapings and saliva would give details of the chemicals that are present in the body of the actor. Officials say that new technology with the Hyderabad police would help in getting 90 per cent accurate results.
“The nail scrapings and saliva would help in finding the traces of drugs, if the person has consumed in the recent times, may be in the last 30 days. Even if the nails are removed, the drugs, which convert into other forms during the metabolism, will be present in the nail formation which will be matched with the contents traced from the saliva. The analysis of the contents present in the samples will be done at the Forensic Sciences Laboratory here,” said a senior police officer in Hyderabad, expressing confidence that a regular consumer of drugs will be easily identified with the test.
In a note issued on Saturday, Excise (Enforcement) Director Akun Sabharwal said questioning of Tarun is going on. Actor P Navdeep would be attending questioning at SIT office on Monday and actress Charmme Kaur has also accepted to visit the office on July 26, for questioning.