Mumbai: Actor Armaan Kohli was arrested by the Narcotics Control Bureau (NCB) on Sunday for allegedly possessing 1.2 gm of cocaine. The NCB had conducted a search at the actor’s Andheri residence on Saturday in a drug-related case after his name cropped up when they were questioning alleged peddler, Ajay Singh, who was arrested the same morning.

A holiday court remanded Kohli and Singh, who have been charged under the Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances Act for procurement, possession, sale purchase transport and illicit trafficking and harbouring offenders, to NCB custody till Monday.

While NCB officers claim that prima facie they have found Kohli’s links with peddlers, including some foreign nationals, sources said that the actor can seek bail as the quantity of cocaine seized from him is 1.2 gm, which falls under the ‘personal consumption’ category. If the defence proves that the quantity seized is for consumption only, the court may relieve Kohli and ask him to undergo a three-month rehabilitation programme.

But NCB officials pointed out that in the arrest of Siddharth Pithani, the flatmate of late actor Sushant Singh Rajput, they did not find any drugs on him, but had found his links with suppliers. “In Kohli’s case too, we arrested peddler Singh from whom we recovered 25 gm of mephedrone and his interrogation led us to the actor. When we carried out a search at Kohli’s residence, we found 1.2 gm of cocaine there,” said an officer.

Probe into the drugs case has found international links as the seized cocaine has South American origin. NCB Mumbai has also found WhatsApp chats and financial transactions. The agency is now probing the route and linkages used to bring drugs into Mumbai and the involvement of other traffickers. “Singh is a history-sheeter. In 2018, the anti-narcotics cell of Mumbai Police had recovered a huge quantity of ephedrine from him,” said Sameer Wankhede, IRS, Mumbai Zonal Director, NCB.

Kohli, a former Bigg Boss contestant, has acted in Hindi movies like Jaani Dushman, Qahar, Juaari, Dushman Zamana and Prem Ratan Dhan Payo.

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The Narcotics Control Bureau (NCB) detained actor Armaan Kohli for questioning on Saturday, following a raid at his Juhu residence. Reportedly, drugs were found in the actor’s house. The actor, who was seen in an edition of Bigg Boss and Salman Khan’s film, Prem Ratan Dhan Payo, was arrested on Sunday morning after several hours of interrogation.

Armaan was taken for a medical examination on Sunday morning. Later, he was produced in a city court and sent to NCB custody for a day.

NCB’s Zonal Director (Mumbai), Sameer Wankhede, told Bombay Times yesterday, “I cannot give a long input right now, but in the past three days, NCB has launched an operation called Operation Rolling Thunder under which we have intercepted peddlers and suppliers of mephedrone drugs and arrested nine of them so far. After that, a lot of places have been searched and we have seized commercial quantities of drugs. Ajay Singh, alias Ajay Mamu was intercepted and arrested. He was carrying an intermediate quantity of MD (mephedrone). And while investigating him, we came to know about Mr Kohli. We tried to search Mr Kohli’s house and we recovered a small quantity of cocaine. Based on that, we got him to office and questioned him and subsequently put him under arrest.”

Armaan has reportedly been arrested under sections 21(a), 27(a), 28, 29, 30, & 35 of NDPS Act.