Bollywood actor Arjun Rampal was quizzed by Narcotics Control Bureau(NCB) for over seven hours on Friday following the arrest of his Australian friend Paul Bartel in a case related to drugs.
NCB had also raided Arjun’s Bandra West residence on Monday and had seized banned painkillers. While explaining the NCB about the posession of opioid drug Tramadol, the actor said that he got them after being prescribed.
“I am fully co-operating with the NCB investigations. I have nothing to do with drugs. The medicine found at my residence (in the Monday’s raids) was prescribed by a doctor. The prescription has been handed over to the NCB…. The NCB officials are doing a good job and I fully support them in their investigations,” he had said.
Meanwhile, Arjun’s friend Bartel, and architect living in Bandra, was questioned and subsequently arrested by NCB on Friday in the same Bollywood drug case of which Rhea Chakraborty has been a part. According to NCB sources, Bartel was in regular contact with drug peddler Agisialos Demetriades, who is Arjun Rampal’s girlfriend Gabriella’s brother.
Earlier on Wednesday and Thursday, the agency had grilled Gabriella for over six hours following the search at their house. Meanwhile, her brother Agisialos was booked in another drug case after the probe revealed his connections with a Nigerian cocaine supplier, Omega Goodwin.
The NCB started probing Bollywood drug nexus following the death of Bollywood actor Sushant Singh Rajput. In the same connection, the agency have quizzed many a-listers including Deepika Padukone, Sara Ali Khan, Shraddha Kapoor and Rakul Preet Singh.