Drug racket: SIT begins questioning ‘Mass Maharaja’ Ravi Teja

Hyderabad: Leading Telugu actor Ravi Teja on Friday appeared before Special Investigation Team (SIT) probing the Hyderabad drug racket.

The actor reached Abkari Bhavan, the office of Prohibition and Excise Department of Telangana, around 10 a.m.

A four-member team of SIT officials began questioning the actor with regard to the racket busted in July.

Like other actors grilled over last two weeks, Ravi would be questioned about his alleged links with the accused arrested in the case.

The actor, who is popularly called as ‘Mass Maharaja’ by his fans, has featured in many films, including “Amma Naana O Tamila Ammayi”, “Dubai Seenu”, “Kick” and “Don Seenu”.

He was summoned for questioning after his contact number was found in the call data of Calvin Mascrenhas and Zeeshan Ali, the two key accused arrested in the case.

Ravi’s mother last week denied the allegations that he uses drugs.

He is the ninth Tollywood celebrity to be questioned in the case. SIT questioned actresses Charmme Kaur and Mumaith Khan during in the last two days.

During the investigation into the drug racket that was busted here on July 2, names of some members of the Telugu film industry had cropped up, the SIT earlier said.

Since July 19, the SIT has questioned filmmaker Puri Jagannadh, cinematographer Shyam K Naidu, actors P Subba Raju, Tarun Kumar and P Navdeep, actresses Charmi Kaur and Mumaith Khan, and art director Dharma Rao alias Chinna.

The SIT had two days back arrested a Dutch national, Mike Kamminga (33), in connection with the ongoing investigation into a case of drugs being supplied in Hyderabad, and claimed to have seized psychotropic substances from him.

The SIT sleuths yesterday conducted raids in different parts of the city.

The Excise officials have so far arrested 20 people, including US citizen Dundu Anish, a former aerospace engineer who has worked with the NASA, and seven BTech degree-holders employed with multi-national companies in Hyderabad.

As a part of the racket, high-end drugs like lysergic acid diethylamide (LSD) and methylenedioxy-methamphetamine (MDMA) were being supplied. The investigators suspect that film personalities, employees of MNCs, school and college students were among the clients.

With agencies input