ED grills Charmee in drug racket case

Hyderabad: The Enforcement Directorate on Thursday questioned Surdeep Kaur, who is popularly known as Charmee Kaur, for about eight hours as part of a money-laundering probe in connection with a high-end drugs racket that was busted in the city in 2017.

The ED had summoned more than 10 celebrities of Tollywood, including director Puri Jagannadh and actor Rana Daggubati, in a case related to the smuggling of 'Class A' narcotic substances, including LSD and MDMA. Puri was interrogated on Tuesday.

In 2017 too, after the racket was busted in July, which further followed the arrest of several people, including an American, a South African and a Netherlands national, Charmee was questioned by the Telangana's Prohibition and Excise department sleuths.

During the interrogation, the officials are understood to have focussed on the chat messages between Charmee and one 'Dada' who they believe is Kelvin, the main accused in the drugs case.

It is learnt that on the day of the conversation, heavy amounts were transferred from the bank accounts of Charmee. But Charmee is said to have told the ED team that she does not know who Kelvin was. She was then confronted with the pictures of Kelvin and three others.

The bank records, it is learnt, indicate that money transfer to Singapore, Thailand and Bangkok had taken place. When asked, she reportedly said that the transactions pertain to film production and not for the purpose of drugs.

The ED also grilled her auditors separately and tried to get information about the missing links. They had told the ED that Charmee had co-produced three movies with Puri Jagannadh under his production house, 'Puri Connects.' The ED sleuths tried to match the statements made by her before the excise officials during the last interrogation in 2017 and her claims now.

Later in the evening, Charmee told the media that she had submitted all the documents the ED wanted and cooperated with the authorities during interrogation and was always ready to do so.