CHENNAI: A financially distressed Hindi film actor trafficking drugs from Cambodia at the behest of a Delhi-based Nigerian gang was arrested by the Directorate of Revenue Intelligence (DRI) at the Chennai airport on Monday after he was found carrying four kg of the narcotic methaqualone worth Rs 40 crore, sources said.
According to sources, the accused was identified as Vishal Brahma (32), a resident of Kokrajhar in Assam. He has acted in the 2019 Karan Johar production Student of The Year 2.
Sources said that Brahma was in dire need of money and had approached some friends in Delhi recently. He was introduced to a member of a Nigerian drug gang who offered him an all-expenses-paid holiday to Cambodia along with a few lakhs of rupees. In exchange, he would have to traffic drugs to Delhi, sources added.
Brahma agreed and travelled to Cambodia two weeks ago from Delhi. After sightseeing and partying at different spots, he was given a trolley bag containing four kg of methaqualone in a concealed compartment by another Nigerian in Cambodia, sources in the probe agency said.
However, he was directed to take a flight from Cambodia via Singapore to Chennai. He landed on Sunday on Air India flight AI 347 at the Chennai International Airport, where he was apprehended by DRI officials.
Sources said that Brahma was instructed to disembark at Chennai airport, check into a hotel near the Dr MGR Chennai Central railway station and take a train to Delhi the same night, where a member of the gang would receive the trolley bag.
Brahma was arrested under the NDPS Act on Monday and remanded to prison.