Mumbai: Actor Chrisann Pereira, who was framed in a drugs case in Sharjah in April and spent almost a month in jail, returned to the city late on Wednesday night after being cleared by the UAE authorities. The Sadak 2 actor broke down at the airport on seeing her family, who had come to receive her with their pet dog in tow. Chrisann hugged her father, mother and brother and wept inconsolably at the reunion after four months.

“I never expected to be released in a drug case in Sharjah so soon, and each day in jail was like a month,” she said later.

Chrisann was acquitted by a Sharjah court in June on the Indian government’s request through diplomatic channels. Her discharge and return are a boost for Mumbai police, who have charged Malad baker Paul Anthony with framing Chrisann and others over petty issues.

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Mumbai: Back home after her 4-month ordeal in UAE, Chrisann Pereira and her family called on police commissioner Vivek Phansalkar on Thursday and thanked the crime branch team for her release. Chrisann was struggling to control her emotions as she narrated her ordeal. She said she had heard of such vicious plots in movies, but never imagined she could end up as a victim.

The crime branch is likely to record Chrisann’s statement in a day or two under CRPC section 164 before a magistrate to make a strong case against Anthony and the other accused.

Chrisann, who also featured in ‘Batla House’, is back home, but another alleged Anthony victim, Clayton Rodrigues, has been sentenced to 25 years in jail and his appeal is pending in the Sharjah court. Diplomatic efforts are on to help Rodrigues.

Though the framing incidents were similar, several factors helped Chrisann prove her innocence in the Sharjah court, said crime branch officials. Anthony had got his friend Rajesh Bobhate alias Ravi to pose as talent manager and approach the actor. He claimed to be the representative of a talent management company in the UAE and offered her an audition for a web series in Sharjah.

“On April 1, when Chrisann was to fly to Sharjah, Bobhate met her near the airport and suddenly handed her a memento with DJ Rishikesh Pandya’s name embossed on it. Bobhate said someone would come and collect it at Sharjah. On the other hand, Anthony, the brain behind the conspiracy, tipped off the Sharjah authorities,” said investigating officer Afroz Shaikh. Marijuana had been planted inside the memento. In Rodrigues’ case, he was lured with a musical gig offer in Sharjah and given a drug-laced cake.

Chrisann cleared security at Sharjah airport and as there was no response from Bobhate or the agency on the memento, she dumped it in a bin and walked away. But her father instructed that she should hand it over to the authorities. This was two-edged: at this point, security traced the narcotics and detained Chrisann, but it also proved to be the “turning point” in the case because CCTV footage at the airport corroborated the sequence of events during scrutiny by the Sharjah authorities.

“Secondly, our investigation report annexing evidence, statements of various witnesses, bogus tickets, bogus audition invitation and other documents sent to Sharjah authorities through the diplomatic channels helped clear her of drug charges,” said JCP (crime) Lakhmi Gautam, who supervised the investigations.

Another important element that helped Chrisann was a chit saying, “Joke on you,” found in the memento. It was also found in the cake Rodrigues was carrying.

The Pereira family had approached the police immediately and pointed a finger at Bobhate. Inspector Deepak Sawant placed Bobhate under surveillance and extended it to Anthony as there were many calls between them. Anthony was detained and under sustained interrogation, he spilled the beans and named Bobhate, a bank official.

It emerged Anthony had framed Chrisann to take revenge after her mother had argued with his sister during the lockdown over Covid guidelines and over pet dog issues in the society. It transpired that Anthony and Bobhate had similarly tried to frame four others. Besides cheating and forgery, Anthony has been booked for extortion as he called up the families of Chrisann and Rodrigues and claimed he knew officials in Sharjah. He sought Rs 80 lakh to bribe them and for legal fees to free them.