Actor Nandu appears before SIT in drug racket case

Telugu film actor Ananda Krishna alias Nandu today appeared before the SIT of Telangana's Excise department as part of an ongoing probe into the drug racket case, busted by it, earlier last month.

Nandu,started his film career with the film "100% Love" in 2002.

Nandu was the last person among 12 personalities, including actors and directors, in Telugu Film Industry received notices from SIT after it had allegedly found their contact numbers in the call data of Calvin Mascrenhas, the kingpin the sensational drug racket case.

A four-member investigating team is questioning the actor in the case to ascertain if he  had any links with the consumers, suppliers or with those arrested. The grilling is expected to continue till 1700 hours.

Since July 19, the SIT had questioned filmmaker Puri Jagannadh, cinematographer Shyam K Naidu, actors P Subba Raju, Tarun Kumar, P Navdeep and Ravi Teja, actresses Charmi Kaur and Mumaith Khan, art director Dharma Rao alias Chinna, actor Tanish Alladi and  Srinivasa Rao,  who had earlier worked as car driver with Teja.

Actor Tanish was questioned by SIT yesterday for over four hours besides two more youngsters (both students) in the case.

After news broke of Nandu's alleged involvement in the drugs case, he uploaded a video on Facebook denying the false claims.

During the questioning of 10 Telugu film persons earlier, all the proceedings have been videographed and some among those questioned have given consent for taking samples of their body fluids, hair and nails while others refused, including Actress Charmi Kaur according to Excise officials.

Excise officials said that those questioned so far have cooperated with the investigators and some of them have even given "certain clues" in connection with the racket.

The SIT has so far arrested 20 persons, including US citizen Dundu Anish, a former Aerospace Engineer who had worked with the NASA, a  Dutch National Mike Kamminga and seven B. Tech degree holders, most of them employed with Multi-National companies in Hyderabad.

Under the racket, high-end drugs such as Lysergic acid Diethylamide (LSD) and Methylenedioxy-Methamphetamine (MDMA) have been supplied.