Actress Charmme Kaur grilled by SIT for six hours in drug case

Hyderabad, July 26 (IANS) The Special Investigation Team (SIT) of Telangana's Excise Department, probing the Hyderabad drug racket, grilled actress Charmme Kaur for over six hours on Wednesday.

A smiling Charmme, with water bottle in one hand and waving at media persons with the other, left Abkari Bhavan, the office of Prohibition and Excise Department, around 5 p.m. but did not speak.

The questioning of Charmme, whose real name is Surdeep Kaur, began at 10 a.m. and continued till the evening with lunch break. The actress refused to give her consent for drawing the samples of body fluid, hair and nails.

A four-member team including three women questioned the actress on her alleged links with Calvin Mascrenhas, the kingpin of the racket. She was also asked whether she takes drugs.

The team, headed by Superintendent, Prohibition and Excise, K. Pavan Kumar, included three women - two inspectors and a sub-inspector. The women officers were included in the team on the directions of the Hyderabad High Court.

The court also asked the SIT not to collect Charmme's blood, hair and nail samples without her consent. It, however, rejected her plea to allow the presence of her lawyer during the questioning.

According to a statement from SIT, Charmme refused to give her consent for drawing the samples and thus they were not collected.

The officials understood to have gathered significant clues from Charmme, who was allegedly in touch with Calvin after the latter was introduced to her by director Puri Jagannadh.

Earlier in the morning, there was commotion at Abkari Bhavan as Charmme reached there with bouncers.

The actress later complained to SIT officials about the alleged misbehaviour of a male police constable who had come very close to her. SIT took all precautions by deploying women constables when she was returning after the questioning.

Charmme is one of the 12 personalities from Tollywood summoned by the SIT for questioning in the drug racket which was busted here this month.

The SIT has questioned seven celebrities including Charmme, actors Tarun and Navdeep and director Jagannadh after the SIT found their contact details in the call data of Mascrenhas.

Actress Mumaith Khan will appear before SIT on Thursday. Actor Ravi Teja and some others will be questioned this week.

The SIT has arrested 20 accused in the racket, which created a sensation following startling revelation that the peddlers sold drugs to students of several colleges and schools in Hyderabad, Tollywood celebrities and techies.

The case took a new turn on Wednesday as SIT arrested a Dutch national in the case. Mike Kamminga's arrest is being considered a major breakthrough as he was reportedly supply the drugs to peddlers from Europe.

The authorities have recovered 3,000 units of LSD, 105 grams of MDMA, 45 grams of cocaine and other narcotic and psychotropic substance from all the accused arrested so far.