In hospital, Rahul arrested under tough drugs law

Rahul Mahajan, the son of late BJP leader Pramod Mahajan, was arrested today evening under the stringent NDPS Act for purchase, possession, and consumption of drugs.

Rahul Mahajan, the son of late BJP leader Pramod Mahajan, was arrested today evening under the stringent NDPS Act for purchase, possession, and consumption of drugs. He has also been charged with destruction of evidence.

Before making the arrest at 7.20 pm, two police teams questioned him at Apollo Hospital for about 10 hours. The sessions were videographed. Though in police custody, Mahajan remains in hospital.

Mahajan and Bibek Moitra, his late father’s secretary, had been brought to the hospital on the night of June 1. Moitra was declared dead on arrival, and Mahajan was admitted in critical condition.

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Police said the two consumed liquor and drugs at 7, Safdarjung Road, the residence allotted to the late BJP leader. Police base this allegation on what three youths, present in the house at the time of the incident, told them. Also on what Sahil Zaroo, who allegedly procured the drugs, told them during interrogation after his arrest in Srinagar.

Mahajan is learnt to have told police that he never took drugs: all he remembered was that he had consumed some champagne and passed out. He told them only Moitra would have been able to describe what happened at the house that night. He said he neither knew the three youths nor Zaroo; only Moitra knew them.

But Additional DCP Manish Aggarwal said: “We have sufficient evidence against him. He’s under arrest in the hospital, and will be brought to the police station once the hospital discharges him.”

Investigators say the case was one of overdosing on the wrong drug: what Mahajan and Moitra had snorted was heroin, thinking it was cocaine. Cocaine is snorted; snorting heroin can prove fatal.

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They say Zaroo was asked to buy five packets of cocaine from peddlers in Vasant Vihar. Mahajan and Zaroo snorted on the contents of one and, realising it was not good, asked him to return the rest. He did so and came back with four packets of cocaine, but by this time the damage was done.

Police say these details emerged from the interrogation of three Nigerian peddlers — Abdullah, David aka Ibrahim, and James Tobu. They say Abdullah told interrogators that the first five packets he supplied to Zaroo for Rs 12,500 were sourced from David.

“When Sahil returned with four of those packets saying they were not of good quality, I got four packets of cocaine from James Taboo and gave them to Sahil,” says Abdullah’s disclosure statement.

–aman.sharmaexpressindia.com