Mumbai: Bollywood actor Arjun Rampal, who was questioned by the Narcotics Control Bureau (NCB) on November 13 in a drug case, has again been summoned by the agency on Wednesday. Earlier, the NCB had questioned Rampal’s partner Gabriella Demetriades too.

The agency had carried out searches at Rampal’s residence last month and seized painkillers Clonazepam and Tramadol, which are opiates (containing opium).

Rampal had said he had nothing to do with the drugs and had a prescription for the medicines found at his residence. He also said he had handed over the prescription to the NCB officers.

Gabriella was questioned to ascertain links with her brother Agisilaos Demetriades, a South African who was arrested by the NCB in November in a drug case.

A special Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances Act court on Tuesday granted bail to Rahil Vishram, an accused arrested in the drugs case the NCB is probing in connection with actor Sushant Singh Rajput’s death by suicide.

His advocate Shekhar Bhandary said Vishram has been directed to furnish a personal bond of Rs one lakh. He was arrested on September 17. The NCB had allegedly recovered 928 grams of charas from his house and Rs 4.36 lakh in cash.

Meanwhile, two other accused who are also named in this case were granted bail in a second drugs case.

Film executive producer Kshitij Prasad and South African national and brother of Arjun Rampal’s partner, Agisilaos Demetriades, were granted bail in the case related to Rajput earlier and subsequently arrested in a second drugs case. While Prasad has been in jail since September 26, Demetriades was first arrested on October 18. Demetriades' lawyer Kushal Mor said he was granted bail and directed to furnish a personal bond of Rs 50,000.

Prasad is a former employee of filmmaker Karan Johar’s Dharmatic Entertainment, a sister concern of Dharma Productions. In November Prasad was arrested and taken into custody in a second case involving the alleged recovery of 4gm of cocaine from Nigerian national Uka Emeka in Andheri.

Prasad in his bail plea claimed the man on whose statement he was booked in this case was a former co-producer with whom he had a falling out in May as he was conducting business in a “nefarious manner and had attempted to cheat him.” He said NCB was roping him in the case in order to harass him and exercise undue pressure over him. The NCB denied his submissions and opposed his bail plea.

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The Narcotics Control Bureau (NCB) has again summoned actor Arjun Rampal for questioning at its office on Wednesday. The NCB began an investigation into an alleged Bollywood-drug cartel nexus following the death of actor Sushant Singh Rajput.

Rampal was last questioned on November 13 after he and his partner, Gabriella Demetriades, were issued summons to join the NCB’s investigation. Gabriella has so far been questioned twice in the case.

On November 9, the agency conducted a search at Capri Heights in Bandra, Rampal’s residence, and also seized some gadgets for analysis as well as some prescription-only medicines. The actor had furnished the prescription before the NCB team. A driver working for him was questioned the same day.

Meanwhile, a special Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances (NDPS) court granted bail to Agisilaos Demetriades, Gabriella’s brother, and former Dharma productions executive producer Kshitij Prasad, in connection with the alleged drug trafficking case.

Agisialos was arrested in October after the NCB seized a small quantity of hash from a resort in Lonavala where he was staying, and anti-anxiety drug alprazolam, which is banned in India, from his home in Khar.

Agisilaos and Prasad were granted bail by the court on November 6 and November 26, respectively. However, they remained in judicial custody as the agency immediately arrested them in connection with another drug case on November 5.

South African national Agisilaos’ lawyer, Kushal Mor, had argued that he could not be tried twice for the same cause and that the NCB had relied on the same evidence it had used in the case in which he had already been granted bail.

Mor said he cited a recent Supreme Court ruling that held that statements made to NCB officers were inadmissible in court, submitting that the only evidence available against Agisilaos were the statements of his co-accused, which, too, were not admissible.

Prasad’s lawyer, Satish Maneshinde, told the court that the second NCB case was connected to the alleged seizure of drugs from an African national, Omega Godwin, in October, when Prasad was in judicial custody. He also argued that there was no contact between Godwin and Prasad or anyone else involved in the case, and that on November 5, the NCB had sought his custody based on another accused’s statement despite the SC ruling that they were inadmissible.

When granting bail to Agisilaos on November 6, the special court had observed that there was no evidence that he had financed any illicit trafficking of drugs and that he appeared to be an end consumer. It held that the rigorous Section 37 of the NDPS Act, which deals with granting of bail for offences involving commercial quantities, were not applicable to him.