Mumaith Khan appears before ED in Hyderabad money laundering probe

Actress Mumaith Khan appeared before the Enforcement Directorate (ED) in Hyderabad on Wednesday as part of a money laundering probe in connection with a high-end drugs racket that was busted in the city in 2017. Khan is the eighth person from the Telugu film industry (Tollywood) to appear before the ED, which has summoned over 10 personalities, including directors and actors. Since 31 August this year, noted filmmaker Puri Jagannadh , actresses Charmee Kaur and Rakul Preet Singh , actors Rana Daggubati, Ravi Teja, and P Navdeep have so far appeared before the central agency. Apart from Telugu movies, Khan, who is known for her item numbers, has also appeared in Hindi, Tamil, and Kannada films. On 2 July, 2017, Telangana’s Prohibition and Excise department had busted the drug racket by arresting a three-member gang including Calvin Mascrenhas, a musician, for allegedly peddling narcotic drugs such as LSD and MDMA. Calvin was also questioned by the ED recently. Subsequently, several cases related to the drug trafficking were registered, and over 20 people were arrested, including a US citizen, who was a former aerospace engineer and had worked with the NASA, besides seven BTech degree holders employed with multi-national companies here. The names of some Tollywood personalities surfaced during the interrogation of persons arrested in connection with the drug racket. A Special Investigation Team (SIT) of the Prohibition and Excise department, as part of its investigation had also probed the alleged drug links with Tollywood, and had then questioned 11 people connected to the Telugu film industry, including actors and directors besides the driver of one of the actors. The investigators suspected that film personalities, employees of MNCs, and school and college students were among the gang’s clients.