Arjun Rampal released a statement after the Narcotics Control Bureau (NCB) arrested his girlfriend Gabriella Demetriades’ brother Agisilaos Demetriades in a drugs case on September 25. Agisilaos, a South African, was arrested for possession of drugs in Goa.

In his statement, Arjun, who’s currently shooting in London, requested that people should refrain from attaching his partner’s name and his name to something that they have nothing to do with. He wrote, “I’m as shocked and taken aback as you are with this latest development. It’s unfortunate that my name is being unnecessarily dragged in every publication though I have no association whatsoever. As far as my family and I are concerned, my direct family and I are law-abiding citizens. And while the incident involves a person who is a relative of my partner, I have no other connection or relationship other than that with this person.”

He added, “I request the media to not make headlines using my name as we are not related and this is causing hurt and confusion for my own family and the people I have a professional relationship with. I have faith in our legal system and whoever is on the wrong side on the law, should be treated as the judiciary deems fit. My trust is in the system in these matters.”

Arjun added, “Let the law take its course and kindly refrain from attaching my partner’s and my name to something we have nothing to do with. I appreciate all your support and humbly request you to be honest and sensitive in this regard.”

NCB zonal director Sameer Wankhede said, “Agisilaos was earlier arrested twice. We seized a small quantity of hashish/ charas from his house in North Goa. He was produced in court, which remanded him to judicial custody till Monday.”

Agisilaos was first arrested last year while the NCB was probing a drug case after the death of actor Sushant Singh Rajput. “There are now three NCB cases against Agisilaos Demetriades. He was arrested in the Sushant Singh Rajput drug case in October 2020. There was a second, Nigerian cocaine case and now this is the third one against him,” said Wankhede.

Last year, the NCB had questioned Arjun and Gabriella while it was probing a drug case, too.

The Narcotics Control Bureau (NCB), which recently filed a more than 50,000-page charge sheet in connection with the Bollywood drugs case that stemmed out of Sushant Singh Rajput’s death case, has shown actor Arjun Rampal as a suspect. The charge sheet also names Rampal’s brother-in-law Agisilaos Demetriades, arrested in two drug-related cases, as an accused and suspects that he ran the racket in Rampal’s name. The charge sheet was filed against 33 people including Rhea Chakraborty, her brother Showik Chakraborty and Sushant’s house manager Samuel Miranda and Sushant’s house help Deepesh Sawant.

Rampal’s house had been raided by NCB’s zonal director Sameer Wankhede and his team on November 9, 2020. As per the charge sheet, during the search, the agency seized 14 tablets of Clonazepam Dispersible Tablet Clonotril and four tablets of Ultracet Tramadol Hydrochloride and Acetaminophen. The anti-drug agency also seized two mobile handsets of iPhone 11 Pro Max and a MacBook Pro belonging to Rampal and two iPhone 10s and a MacBook Air belonging to his partner, Gabriella Demetriades.

Rampal had recorded his first voluntary statement on November 13, 2020, under Section 67 of the NDPS Act. In his eight-page statement, he had spoken about his educational qualifications, personal details and journey in modelling and films, his financial status and his personal life which includes partner Gabriella Demetriades, how they met in 2014 and started living together in 2018 and had a baby the following year.

With regards to the tablet, Rampal said, “Ultracet (tramadol) was prescribed to my dog Brando, by Happy Tails veterinary clinic for pain for post-operative management. The other medicines, Clonazepam was my sister Komal Rampal’s medication for which a subscription has been provided. Today I have provided the prescription of Ultracet issued by Dr. Umesh Karkare  of Happy Tails.” The Clonazepam was prescribed on September 5, 2019, by Dr Rohit Garg from New Delhi. “My sister spends a lot of time and days with me at my residence in Capri Heights,” he said in his statement.

Rampal was also questioned regarding Demetriades, who was arrested in two NCB cases, including the one related to Sushant’s death. The agency had information that Demetriades supplies drugs in the industry using Rampal’s name. NCB also suspected Rampal to be part of the syndicate.

“I met Agisilaos around one and a half years ago. I am acquainted with him but not personally. I have met him around 15 to 16 times in our entire acquaintance. I met him on his birthday on October 12 and he visited my residence for my son’s birthday on July 18, 2020,” Rampal said in the statement.

NCB officers showed him WhatsApp chats of Agisilaos with someone named Stuart and asked him to explain the chats. “I would like to emphasise that I have no knowledge of Stuart...I have no knowledge of the things described and discussed,” Rampal said.

Officers then showed Rampal another set of chats between Agisilaos and Stuart, where Agisilaos used the name Arjun and called him a friend and boss. “I would like to explain that the friend and boss isn’t me but as per my understanding the person Agi was working for was Arjun D,” Rampal said.

He was then asked about a WhatsApp group chat where someone with an international number has asked “How about meth”. In response, Arjun said in his statement, “I have responded to that message with a question mark and ‘whats meth?’.” 

Rampal was then shown another chat between Agisilaos and himself where Agisilaos asked if he wants anything to which Rampal responded “All good bro”. Agisilaos then asked “Hash”. “To this I did not respond. I did not want to talk to him and hence ignored him. There was no conversation after that,” Rampal said in the statement. Rampal also said he is unaware if Agisilaos uses his name to supply contraband.

The NCB had verified the prescriptions provided by Rampal and while the one from the veterinary clinic was genuine, but the one of Clonazepam was backdated and had been procured after the November 9 raid. The NCB recorded the statement of Dr Garg, who said “I didn’t have any record of Komal Rampal being treated for anxiety in my clinic at Chittranjan Park, New Delhi. A consultation for Komal over the phone was done on 10/11/2020. However, the date of issue of medical prescription was written as 05.09.2020 by mistake and the same prescription was physically collected by Komal Rampal’s friend Arti.” He also stated that he was unaware of the NCB case and the raid.

NCB again summoned Rampal on December 21 where he was given a set of 11 questions about the Clonazepam tablet and about his sister’s anxiety. He was asked to provide an invoice for the tablets, to which he said that since the prescription is in Komal’s name, further questions should be directed towards her. The agency has recorded the statement of Komal as well but they haven’t reached a conclusion yet. “The investigation is open against known and unknown people,” said Wankhede.

During the course of the investigation, the NCB has also written to the Consulate General of Republic of South Africa in December 2020 saying that Rampal a suspect trying to flee the country and that he is likely to leave for South Africa. NCB also told the Consulate about Agisiliaos, who is a South African national already arrested in the case. Despite several attempts, mid-day was unable to reach Rampal for his comments.

The Narcotics Control Bureau (NCB), probing actor Arjun Rampal, in connection with banned tablets found at his residence, may have conducted the raid after mistaking him for someone else. Sources have told mid-day that the drug agency found Rampal's partner's brother, Agisilaos Demetriades, talking to someone named 'Arjun' on WhatsApp and assuming it's the actor, raided Rampal's Bandra house.

Rampal also told the agency that one of the tablets is for his dog, prescribed by a vet, and the second is used as an SOS for anxiety by his sister, as prescribed by a Delhi-based psychiatrist.

During his questioning, Rampal also told the NCB that the person 'Arjun' found in Demetriades' WhatsApp chats is not him. mid-day has learnt that the November 9 raid at his residence was a result of this discovery.

During the raid, the NCB had seized two different tablets - one was Ultracet (a prescription medicine used to treat moderate to severe pain, contains tramadol and acetaminophen). One strip comes with 15 tablets and four were found at the actor's house.

The second tablet was Clonazepam, used to treat seizure disorders and panic attacks. Two strips of the tablet were found.

Demetriades, Rampal's partner, Gabriella's brother, was arrested on October 18. The NCB had allegedly found him to be sharing details of drug peddling activities with his contact, Arjun. During its raid, the NCB did not find any narcotics substances at the actor's place. After a long search, officers found Ultracet and Clonazepam, which are banned under the NDPS Act, unless there is a valid prescription.

Gabriella was then called to record her statement on November 11 and 12. Rampal was questioned on November 13 for nearly seven hours. He was shown Demetriades' WhatsApp chats.

"When he saw the chats, Rampal said that the number is someone else's and not his. He added that he did not talk to Demetriades on a daily basis," an NCB officer said.

The NCB then verified the number and found Rampal's claims to be true. He was later questioned about the banned tablets. Ultracet is for his dog, who is suffering from joint pain and howls with pain. This was verified with the Bandra-based veterinary doctor, who confirmed the dog's condition, saying the tablet was being prescribed since around June.

Rampal had submitted the prescriptions during the first round of questioning.

On the other hand, the prescription for Rampal's sister was found to be backdated. In his statement, Dr Rohit Garg, from Delhi, said that he did not know about the NCB probe and issued the prescription in good faith after being approached by a friend.

When asked about this, the actor said he does not know about the prescription being backdated as it is his sister's. Rampal's sister's statement has not been recorded yet.

However, NCB officers confirmed to mid-day that the prescription was procured after the raids to evade a probe and that the sister's statement will be recorded soon after taking legal advice.

An NCB officer told mid-day, "We raided his home based on certain information, there is no question of mistaken identity. We will prove it in the trial."

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.

----------------------------

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.

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.

------------------------

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. 

------------------------

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.