Mumbai: Narcotics Control Bureau (NCB) officials probing the drugs case related to actor Sushant Singh Rajput’s death said that Agisilaos Demetriades, who is a South African national, was on their radar since they arrested Dharma Production manager Kshitij Prasad, but they were waiting to nab him with evidence. “He is closely associated with almost all the big names in our case,” said an official. “On Friday, we got a specific tip-off that Demetriades was staying in a suite in a Lonavala adventure resort and had drugs on him. So, we decided to take action.”

Late on Saturday, a team, led by zonal director Sameer Wankhede, carried out a search of the suite and seized 0.8gm of hashish and 15 strips of Alprazolam, which is used to treat anxiety disorders, panic disorders, and anxiety caused by depression. Alprazolam is a psychotropic substance notified under the provisions of the Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances (NDPS) Act; possession of a large quantity of the drug attracts punishment.

Simultaneously, NCB officials in Mumbai searched Demetriades’s Khar residence in the presence of witnesses and his fiancee and recovered one strip of Alprazolam. He was arrested early on Sunday.

A fortnight ago, when the NCB had recorded Demetriades’s statement in the drugs case, he had allegedly admitted to consuming cannabis leaves/ ganja on occasion, but said he was not into drug peddling. However, during investigation, officials stumbled upon the call detail reports and chats between him and Sandeep Gupta, one of the accused in the drugs case.

“Electronic evidence showed that he was dealing in a variety of drugs, which needed detailed investigation. It is clear that Demetriades had purchased contraband from co-accused Kaizan Ibrahim and Gupta and hence, is part of the conspiracy for drug procurement. Demetriades also has links with Rajput’s girlfriend Rhea Chakraborty and her brother Showik, Rajput’s staffer Dipesh Sawant, and Anuj Keshwani and Dwayne Fernandes who used to procure drugs for Rajput,” the NCB remand stated.

Booked under the relevant sections of the NDPS Act, Demetriades was produced before a special NDPS court which remanded him in police custody till Monday. Advocate Kushal Mor represented Demetriades.

The Enforcement Directorate (ED) probing the money-laundering angle in Rajput case had found chat messages pertaining to drugs on Rhea’s phone and had passed on the details to the NCB. The ED had cloned her phone and found her involvement in purchase, consumption, transportation and usage of contraband, the NCB had claimed.

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The Narcotics Control Bureau (NCB) has arrested Agisilaos Demetriades, the brother of actor Arjun Rampal’s partner Gabriella Demetriades, for allegedly being part of a drug syndicate operating in Mumbai. The agency claimed that he was in touch with many drug peddlers who have links with actor Rhea Chakraborty’s brother Showik.

NCB officials said 0.8 gm of a “black, sticky substance”, assumed to be hash, was recovered from a resort in Lonavala where Agisilaos was staying, and a few tablets of anti-anxiety drug alprazolam, which is banned in India, from his home in Khar. The NCB said teams simultaneously raided the resort and the Khar residence following a tip-off on Saturday.

The 30-year-old South African is the first foreign national to be arrested in the case. He was produced before a court on Sunday, where his advocate, Kushal Mor, said he had cooperated with the agency and that there was no allegation in the NCB’s remand application of him being a dealer. But the court sent Agisilaos to the agency’s custody for three days.

Ashok Jain, the NCB’s deputy director general, confirmed the arrest but refused to elaborate on it.

Another NCB official said Agisilaos’s call records reveal that he was in touch with alleged drug peddlers Anuj Keshwani and Dwayne Fernandes, who are in jail, and another suspected peddler Kaizan Ibrahim, who is out on bail. The official alleged that Ibrahim used to supply drugs to Agisilaos.

So far, 23 arrests, including those of Chakraborty and Showik, have been made in the case. Chakraborty was granted bail by the Bombay High Court on October 7; her brother is still in jail. On October 15, the NCB arrested Jai Madhok, a Santacruz resident, on charges of peddling and distributing cocaine and hashish. His name had cropped up during an interrogation of Dharma Productions’ former executive producer Kshitij Ravi Prasad and another accused, Ankush Arenja, both of whom were earlier arrested.

Last month, the NCB recorded the statements of Bollywood actors Rakul Preet Singh, Deepika Padukone, Shraddha Kapoor and Sara Ali Khan, as well as Padukone’s manager Karishma Prakash. 

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In a new twist to the drugs case related to actor Sushant Singh Rajput's death, the Special Investigation Team (SIT) of the Narcotics Control Bureau (NCB) has arrested former South African model Gabriella Demetriades' brother Agisilaos Demetriades. According to the NCB, he has been found to be part of a larger drug syndicate and was also in touch with a number of peddlers in Goa and Mumbai. So far, the NCB has arrested 23 accused in the case including Rhea Chakraborty and her brother Showik.

Speaking to mid-day, a senior NCB official said, "During investigation we found that he was in touch with most of the drug peddlers arrested in the case. Those peddlers who supply high quality drugs to high-profile parties mostly belong to the B-town."

The team of NCB Zonal Director Sameer Wankhede raided a room at a resort in Lonavala where Agisilaos was staying with his fiancée and seized a small quantity of charas. The agency also raided his Khar residence last Saturday and found a strip of Alprazolam (banned under NDPS Act).

"Based on the search operation conducted at both the premises he was summoned. He confessed to consuming narcotic substances including cannabis and was arrested based on his statement and electronic evidence that surfaced during the probe," the officer added. He has been booked under section 27 (A) of the NDPS Act (punishment for financing illicit traffic and harbouring offender. Whoever indulges in financing, directly or indirectly, any of the activities specified in sub-clauses).

The officials also confirmed that he was in touch with several drug peddlers, including Anuj Keshwani and Kaizan, who were arrested earlier in the case. The electronic evidence has revealed that he was taking contraband from Sandeep Gupta, who is an auto driver and has already been arrested in the matter.

Agisilaos was produced before the holiday court on Sunday and sent to NCB custody for two days. The agency told the court that he was part of a larger syndicate and was dealing in a variety of drugs. It also said that he had links with Sushant's house help Deepesh Sawant and house manager Samuel Miranda.

The NCB has also found that he used to spend most of his time in India and was into some marketing work. "We suspect that the marketing work was a bogus business used by him to continue his chain of drug supply without the Indian agencies getting to know about it," the officer said.

Advocate Kushal Mor, who represented the accused, said in court, "The application has no grounds for arrest and there is no evidence of links to any drug syndicate. My client is fully cooperating with the agency." He also said that nothing was recovered from Agisilaos' house.