Bollywood actor Armaan Kohli held in drugs case

Mumbai: The Narcotics Control Bureau (NCB) on Sunday said it arrested actor Armaan Kohli in connection with a drugs case after questioning him at its office in south Mumbai for a few hours following the recovery of cocaine at his residence, an official said.

An NCB team raided Kohli's house on Saturday evening and later took him to the agency's office. He was arrested after few hours of questioning and booked under provisions of the Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances (NDPS) Act, the official said.

The announcement of his arrest to the media was made at 10 AM on Sunday, he said.

The actor was remanded in the custody of the NCB till Monday.

Sources on Sunday said a small quantity of cocaine was found at Kohli's residence, following which a case was registered against him and he was arrested.

Kohli had featured in the Salman Khan-starter "Prem Ratan Dhan Payo" among other films and was also one of the contestants of the TV reality show Bigg Boss.

The action against Kohli followed the arrest of TV actor Gaurav Dixit by the central anti-drugs agency here on Friday.

The official said the NCB decided to question Kohli after certain "disclosures" were made by Ajay Raju Singh, the main drug peddler detained for interrogation on Saturday, during his interrogation.

Singh was also arrested under the NDPS Act.

He was intercepted near Haji Ali and 25 grams of MD was recovered from him on Saturday, the official said.

Singh had been booked by the Anti-Narcotics Cell of the Mumbai Police in 2018 in connection with the seizure of a huge quantity of Ephedrine, he said.

"After interrogating Singh, we launched a follow-up operation on Saturday afternoon. Subsequently, a team of NCB officials raided Armaan Kohli's houses and recovered a small quantity of cocaine from him. Later, a case was registered against him and he was shown arrested," the official said.

As per the preliminary investigation, the seized cocaine is of South American origin.

"The NCB is probing the route and links through which the seized cocaine found its way to Mumbai. We are also checking the involvement of other traffickers," the official added.