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TIMES CITY5
THE TIMES OF INDIA, HYDERABAD | FRIDAY, JULY 28, 2017
Hyderabad: Actress MumaitKhan, who took a break fromthe Big Boss house to appearbefore the prohibition and ex-cise sleuths, on Thursdaytold Special Investigation Te-am (SIT) that she ‘hardly’ par-ties at pubs. She, however, ad-mitted that she smokes andconsumes alcohol, but denieddoing drugs. She volunteeredto give her blood, hair and na-il samples, but SIT sleuths sa-id, if need be, they will collectthem later.
During the over six-hourquestioning, the SIT sleuthsquizzed her on pub visits andparties. The actress claimedshe rarely visits and partiesat pubs. “Like Charmme, Mu-mait too denied knowing anydrug peddlers. She also deni-ed every abusing drugs,” a so-urce in the excise departmentsaid.
Mumait claimed shemostly stays in Mumbai and
visits Hyderabad only whenshe has a scheduled shoot he-re. As not many Tollywoodprojects were in hand, she cla-imed her visits to Hyderabadhad come down drastically,the official said.
When asked about herequation with director PuriJagannadh and Tollywoodpersonalities under the scan-ner in the drugs case, Mumaitclarified that she only had aprofessional relationshipwith them.
Earlier, the actress landed
at the SIT office around 9.45am. However, unlike the situ-ation the previous day, the ex-cise sleuths ensured therewere enough women police-men at Abkari Bhavan.
When the SIT sleuths as-ked about her willingness togiving blood, nail and hairsamples, Mumait agreed. In-terestingly, the SIT officialsdid not take the samples. Shewas informed that, if need be,they would take the sampleslater. Mumait was let off befo-re the 5pm deadline.
Actress QuizzedFor 6hrs On PubVisits, Parties
Mumait: I drink & smoke, but no drugs
Hyderabad: The goodbyes we-re not done properly and theparting was hasty. “Five minu-tes hai mere pass (I have only fi-ve minutes)” actress MumaitKhan said as she exited theBigg Boss house in Lonavala,Pune, on Wednesday. She took aflight and landed at Rajiv Gand-hi International Airport,Shamshabad, at night. OnThursday, dressed in black, sheshowed up at the excise office tobe questioned by the Special In-vestigation Team (SIT) in thedrugs case.
There were tears and wee-ping at the Bigg Boss house.The other inmates, taken bysurprise at her sudden depar-ture, wanted to know why shewas leaving. “Why are youpacking?” they asked her. “Kya
Hua (What happened)?” “Whatare you doing?” “Give us clari-ty?” were some of the ques-tions she was bombarded with.
“Chalo Chalo, Bye Bye,”Mumait Khan said as she rantowards the huge door of theBigg Boss house and got out.“Play well. Be good. Be nice,”she said, while rushing out ofthe house on Wednesday.
Mumait Khan had to attendthe questioning by excise offici-als, but she chose not to tell any-one that. However, even beforethe show began and inmatesgot into the house, word wasout that her name had figuredin the drugs case. The inmatesprobably were not aware ofthis.
Organisers of Bigg Boss didnot get back to a query fromTOI about when she would re-turn to the house.
Bigg Boss weepsas actress quits
Visakhapatnam: Hydera-bad could be where all the ac-tion is, but serving the capi-tal city its heady dosage ofdrugs is a thick-network of‘gentlemen users’ flying inthe stash, all the way from Vi-sakhapatnam.
Their generic profile: yo-ung, suave white-collared ex-ecutives -- mostly employedwith multi-national corpora-tions in Hyderabad -- withconnections in the Port City.“They are usually in the 25 to40 age bracket and often havea long-standing associationwith Vizag. Many amongthem are engineering andmanagement graduates whoperhaps went to school/colle-ge there and built these con-tacts ,” said a senior police-man from Visakhapatnam.
From the dealers in thePort City, these gentlemenusers transport ganja packa-
ges to Hyderabad from whereit then travels to peddlers sta-tioned at almost 100 minordistribution points –in Hyde-rabad and other major townsof Telangana, including Wa-rangal.
Official estimates suggestclose to 150 tonnes of ganja isrouted from Visakhapatnamand East Godavari districts,accounting for about 5% ofthe banned substance har-vested every year in southOdisha and north coastalAndhra. The most-sought af-ter variety: Sheelavati.
Those familiar with ‘She-elavati’ say it’s the prime va-riety of marijuana that’sgrown in Visakhapatnamand other north coastal zo-nes. “This hybrid variety hashigh levels of Tetrahydro-cannabinol (THC) a compo-und that affects behaviouralpattern among users. If con-sumed in large doses, medi-cal research suggests, it canseverely impair many psy-chological functions (such asmemory) and leave the indi-vidual disconnected,” a se-nior psychiatrist said.
‘Gentlemen druggies’ flyin Sheelavati from Vizag
Venkatesh.Bayya @timesgroup.com
Hyderabad: Ravi Teja, one ofthe top Telugu film heroes,will be grilled by the SpecialInvestigation Team (SIT) ofthe excise department on thedrugs issue on Friday. The ac-tor’s mother Rajyalakshmihad claimed that there was noway her disciplined son wo-uld be related to the drugs is-sue. Teja himself has mainta-ined a stoic silence on the is-sue.
Ravi Teja has acted in ma-ny films directed by Puri Ja-gannadh, who was the firstfrom the film industry to besubjected to questioning inthe drugs probe. In the past,Ravi Teja’s brothers Bharath,who died in a road accidentrecently, and Raghu had beenarrested in drug related ca-ses.
Twenty years ago, Ravi
Teja debuted with a role in‘Sindhooram’ directed byKrishna Vamsi. . In ‘Nee Ko-sam’, he put up a sterling per-formance, but what endearedhim to the masses was ‘Idiot’directed by Puri Jagannadhin 2002. That placed the heroin big league and he even gotthe title ‘Mass Maharaja’from his fans and admirers.
More impressive and po-wer-packed performances
followed in films like ‘AmmaNaana O Tamila Ammayi’,‘Dubai Seenu’, ‘Kick’ and‘Don Seenu’. He also acted in‘Itlu Sravani Subramanyam’,‘Power’, ‘Mirapakay’ and‘Krishna’. With establishedstars holding centre-stage inTollywood, Teja managed toclimb up the ladder, givingthe producers the hope thatnot only would his films getgood openings but also proveto be hits. Most of the times, itproved right.
Ravi Teja, who has beenshooting for his two forthco-ming films ‘Raja the Great’and ‘Touch Chesi Chudu’,had lost his cool recentlywhen media questioned himwhy he had not attended hisbrother Bharath’s last rites.He explained saying he wan-ted his brother’s smiling faceto be etched in his mind fore-ver and not his dead body.
‘Mass Maharaja’ Ravi Teja inhot seat today, ready for [email protected]
Ravi Teja
Hyderabad: After the SpecialInvestigation Team (SIT) iden-tified 40 software professionalsusing narcotics, the informa-tion technology departmenthas issued a set of directions tosoftware firms identified.
The department has askedthe firms to be extra vigilantand keep a close watch on emp-loyees in order to identify signsof drug intake.
“I have personally contac-ted many centre heads of therespective IT companies, who-se list has been shared with usby the excise department. Sin-ce no employees have been na-med, firms have been asked tomaintain strict vigil and moni-tor all their employees, withinthe office premises and checkfor any signs or symptoms ofdrug usage,” IT secretary Jay-esh Ranjan said.
“If such signs are detectedin an employee, we have direc-ted firms to act on it strictlyand inform police,” he added.
Experts say that a stress-free work environment mightencourage employees to refra-in from using drugs and incre-ase their productivity. IT firmshave now lined up a slew ofawareness programmes andemployee-engagement activi-ties in order to tackle the issueof drug usage among employe-es.
“It is unfortunate that sucha trend has been noted amongworkers in the IT industry de-spite the fact that most compa-nies, including us, conductdrug tests before recruiting acandidate. We have now deci-ded to tackle the issue by edu-cating employees about the si-de-effects of narcotics,” saidVijay Ranganeni, chief execu-tive officer at Tech MahindraBPO.
Other tech firms pointedout how there have been no in-stances of drug abuse within
IT parks.“Thanks to foolproof secu-
rity, there have been no instan-ces of drug abuse within officepremises. What we have obser-ved, however, is that after dea-ling with work pressures, ma-ny employees consume drugsas a stress-relieving activityover the weekends. This is whywe have decided to focus onconducting team-building acti-vities over the weekends in or-der to engage employees andkeep them occupied and in tu-ne with the company’s inter-ests and policies,” said Vis-wam Vemula, vice president ofPolaris.
Those working in the city’sIT hub, which employs close to4.7 lakh people as per latest fi-gures provided by the IT de-partment, however, were notvery amused by this stance bythe authorities as they felt itwas ‘unfair’ for anyone to evenname the industry in this un-folding drug saga in the state.
“It is a law and order issueand it is unfair to drag IT com-panies. The only way for theauthorities to tackle this is towork towards proper enforce-ment of rules,” a techie said.
Another techie pointed outthat instead of pinpointing theIT industry, the governmentshould be worrying aboutschools.
Keep up vigil: IT advisory tocity cyber [email protected]
A ‘walk against drugs’ is to be organized by the Telugu filmindustry on July 30 at 7am at KBR Park in Banjara Hills. Many
film stars are expected to participate in the walk.Movie Artistes Association (MAA) president Shivaji Raja, generalsecretary Naresh and others met excise minister T Padma Rao athis residence on Thursday and extended an invitation to theminister to also participate in the walk. With the film industry beingin the dock in the drugs case being probed by the excisedepartment,MAA took the initiative to drive home the message thatthe industry was against drug abuse. TNN
Tollywood To Walk The Talk
I have personallycontacted many
centre heads of the respec-tive IT companies, whose listhas been shared with us bythe excise department. Sinceno employees have beennamedFirms have now beenasked to maintain strict vigiland to keenly monitor alltheir employees, within theoffice premises and check forany signs or symptoms ofdrug usageJayesh Ranjan| IT SECRETARY
Hyderabad: Dragged out ofher bedroom by police and so-ciety members without aknock on the door in a gatedcolony in Kukatpally for sup-posedly possessing ganja,IBM engineer Ekta Negi is inacute trauma. It was just notthe ignominy of police ques-tioning, but also the defama-tion of her pictures going vi-ral on Internet and branded adruggie that has rubbed saltin wounds of the 22-year-old.Ekta Negi has been accused ofpossessing 20gm weed, whichwas kept in a corner of the di-ning table of her flat, whichshe shares with two others.
The IBM engineer saidshe had nothing to do withganja seized from her flat atMalaysian Township on July21. The techie, who came toTOI office on Thursday expla-ined how the ‘Gestapo’ men-tality of members of Malaysi-an Township residential as-sociation and the ‘name andshame’ pogrom of city policewas ruining lives of youngprofessionals even as the nar-cotics mafia in the state rema-ined untouched.
On July 21, KPHB policearrested Ekta, resident of flatnumber 103, block number 17,Malaysian Township, alongwith her flat mate, Gopi Sad-hana, and seized 20gm of gan-ja from their flat. Based on theconfession of Ekta, police al-so raided flat number 304,block number 27 of Malaysi-an Township and arrestedSadhna’s friends, M NithinSai, D Uday and Abhilash M,in possession of 40 grams ofganja.
Talking to TOI, Ekta said
she barely knew her flatmate,Sadhana, who moved into theflat three weeks ago. “I camein contact with her through aFacebook group, Flats andFlatmates, when she was loo-king to share a room,” saidEkta.
Police mentioned in theFIR, a copy of which Ekta isyet to receive, that the womenprocured ganja from an unk-nown peddler whose numbershe secured from a friend,Basheer. The three men ar-rested have procured ganjafrom their friend, Robin, theFIR stated. Both Basheer andRobin are also named accu-sed. However, Ekta said sincepast one-and-half months shehas been using a friend’s SIM
card as she lost her card.Talking to TOI, Ekta said
it was not police, but mem-bers of Malaysian TownshipResidential Association whobarged into her bedroom at3.30pm when she was in deepsleep after night shift. “Wo-men association members en-tered my room and draggedme out. I also saw my flatmateand three men, who are herfriends in the hall. Amongscattered items on the table inthe shared hall, the womenpointed to a small box and for-ced us to open it. And therewas ganja in it. Then policewere called and they took meand my flatmate to police sta-tion at 4.30pm,” said Ekta.
According to Ekta, after
she reached the police sta-tion, police seized their pho-nes and did not allow them tocall family members. “Theytook my photograph, sayingit won’t be circulated. Thenext day, I saw them online innews portals everywhere.How can they do that? Also,there was a virulent anti-North Indian bias among po-lice, who accused me of pro-curing drugs from my nativeUttarakhand,” said Ekta.
‘’Police also forced me tosign on a paper, which was inTelugu text, which I could notread. All I could read was myname, address and work deta-ils written in English. Rest ofthe content was in Telugu andthey hurried me to sign on it.
With no one to consult and de-sperate to leave the police sta-tion, I signed on it and onlythen I was let off,” said Ekta.
KPHB inspector Ch Kus-halkar, who is also the comp-lainant in suo motu case, toldTOI that the raid was carriedout in the presence of eye-wit-nesses after receiving a confi-dential information from so-ciety members. Documentsfurnished before the 19 Met-ropolitan Magistrate Court ofKukatpally by police state theraid was carried out by themin presence of tehsildar Ku-katpally and two official ‘pan-chas’.
“Ekta gave her statementorally in Hindi and the samewas written in Telugu by our
police team. Entire processhad been done in presence ofwitnesses,” the inspector sa-id.
While police alleged theaccused, including Ekta haveconfessed to purchase andconsumption of ganja, Ektaclearly said she had neverprocured or consumed thedrug.
Police said photographs ofall accused were shared withmedia as it is done with everycase. “Unless accused is a mi-nor or the victim of a sexualcrime, we do share detailswith media. This is a NDPSAct case and the accused arenot minors. We have also notsingled out any one of the ac-cused,” the inspector said.
Defamed OnNet, HoundedBy City Cops
Weed out drug mafia, but don’t killthis techie’s career. Read her story
Ekta said for past one-and-half months she has been using her friend’s SIM card after she lost hers. There was confusion among police over seized phones
Ekta says IBM colleagues and management are supportive
Police mentioned in FIR, whose copy Ekta is yet to receive, that ganja was bought from unknown peddler, whose number was secured from a friend
POINT-COUNTERPOINT
Joined IBM in January
2017
WHO’S EKTA NEGI?She fi nished her BTech in Electrical, Electronics and Communication engineering from Bharti Vidyapeeth Deemed University in 2016.
Malaysian Township Residents Association members say they only “accompanied”
police during the crackdown. Police had prior information about accused. “One executive committee member and some housewives went with police. Nobody forced their way into the apartment as the main door was shut, but not bolted from inside,” said K R K Prasad, president of association. While Prasad said he wasn’t part of the ‘operation’ he claimed “girls were doing weed”, when the group reached their house. “One of them even admitted she 'smokes up' regularly,” said general secretary, G S Raju, who was ‘absent’ when arrests were made. Yet, he asserted that police retrieved ganja from the fl at.
IBM techie Ekta Negi
WHAT MALAYSIAN TOWNSHIP SAYS
IN SPOTLIGHT: Mumait Khan appears at Abkari Bhavan on Thursday
Venkat Rao M
TIMES NEWS NETWORK
Pics: Venkat Rao M
