Telangana State Narcotics Bureau Grill Actor Navdeep Over Drug Bust For Six Hours

Hyderabad: Tollywood actor Navdeep was questioned by the Telangana State Narcotics Bureau (TSNAB) for around six hours at the bureau’s Lakdikapul office over evidence of the actor’s drug consumption after his name surfaces in a series of busts at high-end clubs for hosting drug parties.

TSNAB SP Sunitha Reddy said that they have seized his mobile phone and will send it for forensic analysis for further investigation. “After the analysis and further investigation, if some other leads come up, we will summon him again for questioning,” she said.

In the probe, the police confronted Navdeep with names and numbers of persons with whom he had been in contact since 2017 and also his association with them. Among them, 30 numbers are stored in his mobile directory with their names, it was found.

Sunitha also said that Navdeep submitted to them a mobile phone which was in a formatted condition. “He was also carrying his mother’s mobile phone and tried to pass it on as his mobile phone. But his mobile phone which he had left at home while coming for questioning, was also brought in. It was found that he left from all sharing platforms and also even uninstalled WhatsApp from his mobile phone,” she said.

Speaking to the media after the questioning, Navdeep claimed that he was earlier questioned by the Directorate of Enforcement and the SIT commissioned to probe the Tollywood drugs scandal in 2017 and claimed his innocence, citing clean chit in that case. He also admitted that he and one of the arrested accused in the recent busts, Ramchand, were friends and both were associated with the BPM pub at Gachibowli.

“TSNAB officials are doing the investigation beautifully and they are going deep to the roots. They have a very good team with a very good success rate in the country. I cooperated with them and they have got all their answers. They said that they would call me again if needed,” he said.