In a major breakthrough in the Bollywood drug scandal case, the Narcotics Control Bureau (NCB) has nabbed one Australian citizen named Paul Bartel. He is the 26th accused arrested in connection to the case by the central investigative agency.
As per reports, Bartel was interrogated for 6 hours by the NCB team. The investigative officials found that he was in touch with another arrested drug supplier from South Africa named Agisilaos Demetriades. It may be noted that Demetriades is the brother of Gabriella, the girlfriend of Bollywood actor and model Arjun Rampal. Bartel, an architect by profession, used to live in Bandra in Mumbai. He also had connections with other businessmen in the construction industry.
NCB had learnt that Bartel used to buy drugs from Agisilaos Demetriades. The officials are now probing whether he used to supply drugs as well to others in the Hindi film fraternity. According to Sameer Wankhede, Zonal Director NCB, Bartel has been arrested in the same drug case, as that of Rhea Chakraborty and her brother Showik Chakraborty, for consumption and conspiracy under the Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances Act (NDPS), 1985. His house was also raided by the NCB but no recoveries were made.
NCW raids residence of Arjun Rampal
Intensifying the Bollywood drug probe, the Narcotics Control Bureau (NCB) on Monday raided the premises of actor Arjun Rampal. As per reports, the raid comes days after his girlfriend Gabriella Demetriades’ brother was arrested over allegations of being in touch with drug peddlers. The South African national was reportedly in touch with the drug peddlers arrested in connection to Sushant Singh Rajput death case.
Arrest of Agisilaos Demetriades
Demetriades was the first foreigner to be arrested in the case last month. NCB had said that he was a part of the drug syndicate that supplied drugs, and was in touch with other accused arrested in the case. Earlier the anti-narcotic agency had searched the Khar residence of the accused where 1 strip of Alprazolam tablets was recovered.
After that, a room in a resort in Lonavala, where 30 years old Agisilaos Demetriades was staying with his fiancé, was also searched by NCB officials. About 0.8 grams of small round shaped black colour sticky substance, purported to be charas, was recovered. Following the recoveries, Demetriades was summoned by NCB questioning, where he confessed that he consumed cannabis leaves sometimes. He revealed that a rickshaw driver had supplied him the drugs.