LSD. (Photo | Psychonaught/Wikimedia)
HYDERABAD: Wednesday morning would mark the beginning of questioning sessions wherein film personalities will be grilled by Telangana Prohibition and Excise Department’s Special Investigation Team (SIT) to know their level of involvement in the drug racket. The first celebrity to face questions at SIT’s office in Telangana Prohibition and Excise department at Nampally would be director Puri Jagannadh.
A total of 12 film personalities (10 men and two women), who were sent notices, would attend the questioning sessions from July 19 to 27. Actresses can choose a place of their choice to appear before the officials, as mandated under Narcotics Drugs and Psychotropic Substances Act (NDPS) Act.
All evidence is being gathered to corner the celebrities. Call Data Records (CDR) would be the key to explore link between celebrities and narcotic peddlers. The officials will try to find if any rules in NDPS Act was violated by the celebrities, and whether they are only a user or supplied narcotics too.
However, officials are wary that celebrities would come to the sessions after undergoing several rounds of drug detox sessions to flush out traces of drugs from their system. It was published in these columns that some film personalities who were served notices are already undergoing the detox sessions.
Mumaith to be informed about Excise notice at reality show set Officials from Telangana Prohibition and Excise department approached a TV Production Enterprise to convey message to actress Mumaith Khan that a notice has been issued to her by the department. The actress, whose name came up in connection with drugs investigation, is participant in a Telugu reality show which is being shot in Lonavla, Mumbai. “She would be informed about the notice in the confession room of the show,” sources said.
Drug bust: Focus shifts back to schools
Hyderabad: The focus is back on schools across Telangana. State Prohibition and Excise department’s commissioner RV Chandravadan has written to the State School Education department asking them to sensitise parents against drug abuse. The Excise department’s sleuths suspect that drugs and narcotics are being supplied to schoolchildren in the immediate premises of schools. While a meeting was scheduled to be held on July 14 between the Excise department’s officials, principals and management of schools, and psychiatrists, it did not take off.
TS sleuths explore means to nab drug supplier
Hyderabad: There is a strong focus on drug suppliers and users as at least three law enforcement agencies of TS are closely monitoring their activities. Even such close surveillance is not deterring some narcotics addicts from scoring. A drug user is learnt to have sent a message to a peddler to buy a blot of LSD and that he was ready to pay two times the price.
These are the days when sleuths of Telangana Prohibition and Excise department are exploring all means to nab more drug suppliers and Telangana state police department too is extending support to them. And the message was sent about three days ago. “This shows how desperate a person is to consume the narcotics product,” sources said. Officials in the department who found phone numbers of users have been calling them to the office, if a user is major, and inquiring to find if the person is using drugs for personal consumption or a peddler.
Awareness campaign on drug abuse in Warangal
Warangal: In the wake of reports that children studying in some renowned educational institutions in Hyderabad are using LSD, Warangal West MLA D Vinay Bhaskar with the help of an NGO, People for Urban and Rural Empowerment (PURE), is planning to take up awareness campaign to help students understand the harmful effects and consequences of drug use.
