ED summons Rana Daggubati, Ravi Teja, Rakul Preet Singh, Puri Jagannadh over four-year-old drug case

Actors Rana Daggubati, Ravi Teja, and Rakul Preet Singh are among the twelve celebrities summoned by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) in connection with a four-year-old drug trafficking and consumption case. The Baahubali actor has summoned by the ED on 8 September. Teja has been called in on 9 September while Singh has been asked to appear on 6 September. The list of people summoned includes director Puri Jagannadh and actors Charmee Kaur, Navdeep, and Mumaith Khan. Teja’s driver has also been asked to appear. The ED was quick to state the people summoned are not accused in any way. “It is premature to say whether they are involved in money laundering,” senior officials of the agency clarified. The officials added that till any evidence emerges to the contrary, the stars will only be seen as witnesses. The Telangana Excise and Prohibition Department, in 2017, had registered 12 cases after seizing drugs worth Rs 30 lakh. The department had filed chargesheets in 11 cases. So far 30 people have been arrested by the department in connection with the case. The Telangana Excise Department has also questioned 62 people in relation to the case, out of which 11 belong to the Telegu film industry. The ED had later started investigating the money laundering angle in the cases. The agency said it has also summoned excise officials as witnesses. The people arrested are said to be big suppliers of banned substances to educational institutes, pubs, and rave parties in Goa and Hyderabad. The traffickers are said to have links to Mumbai, Pune, and Delhi as well. In recent years, Hyderabad has seen multiple instances of large quantities of drugs being seized. The biggest haul was in July 2017, when large quantities of LSD and cocaine were recovered from at least 13 people in a series of raids. As per the Excise Department, the drug users included college and school students.