Drug racket: Telugu actor Tanish Alladi to appear before SIT

Telugu film actor Tanish Alladi is likely to appear before the special investigation team (SIT) of Telangana's excise department as part of an ongoing probe into a high-end drug racket busted by it.

He is among the 12 personalities, including directors and actors from the Telugu film industry (popularly known as Tollywood), to be summoned by the SIT in connection with the case.

"Tanish Alladi is to appear before the SIT on July 31," a senior excise official said.

The SIT sleuths yesterday grilled Srinivasa Rao, who had earlier worked as driver with popular actor Ravi Teja. Teja was questioned for nearly nine hours on July 28.

During the investigation into the drug racket that was busted on July 2, names of many members of the Telugu film industry had cropped up, the SIT had said.

Since July 19, the SIT has questioned filmmaker Puri Jagannadh, cinematographer Shyam K Naidu, actors P Subba Raju, Tarun Kumar, P Navdeep and Ravi Teja, art director Dharma Rao alias Chinna, and actresses Charmi Kaur and Mumaith Khan.

The excise officials have so far arrested 20 people, including US citizen Dundu Anish, a former aerospace engineer who has worked with the NASA, Dutch national Mike Kamminga, and seven B Tech degree holders employed with multi-national companies in Hyderabad.

Under the racket, high-end drugs such as lysergic acid diethylamide (LSD) and methylenedioxy-methamphetamine (MDMA) were being supplied.

The investigators suspect that the gang's clientele included nearly 1,000 customers, including students of various city-based schools and colleges, people associated with Tollywood, senior officials of MNCs and employees of IT firms in Cyberabad.

The investigations have revealed disturbing facts about the use of drugs by schools and college students, a senior excise official said.

Excise Minister T Padma Rao Goud earlier said the department had served notices to 13 IT companies and that suspected employees will be called for questioning after gathering sufficient proof.

The racketeers placed orders through 'Darknet' (a restricted online network used for illegal activities) and the drugs were delivered by couriers including from overseas, the officials had said.

(This article has not been edited by DNA's editorial team and is auto-generated from an agency feed.)