'Mumbai Police will investigate Vivek Oberoi for drug links if NCB does not': Maharashtra Home Minister
Mumbai/IBNS: Actor Vivek Oberoi should be investigated for possible links with the drugs scandal involving the Kannada film industry being probed by the Narcotics Control Bureau (NCB), Maharashtra Home Minister Anil Deshmukh said Friday, reported media.
The minister commented after a Congress delegation met him following a raid at Oberoi's home by the Bengaluru Police on Thursday in this regard.
Media reports said police were looking for Vivek Oberoi's wife Priyanka Alva's brother Aditya, who has been absconding, after being named in the drug case by the Central Crime Branch of the Bengaluru Police.
Vivek Oberoi is a vocal supporter of BJP and had also played the role of Prime Minister Narendra Modi in his biopic ahead of 2019 Lok Sabha elections.
According to news agency ANI, Priyanka Alva, who is the daughter of former Karnataka minister Jeevaraj Alva and Nandini Alva, has also been served notice by the Crime Branch.
Maharashtra Home Minister Anil Deshmukh demanding a probe against Oberoi said the Bengaluru Police have gone to Mumbai to investigate the drug links but the NCB is not investigating this, said an NDTV report.
"We will request the NCB to probe this and what connection Vivek Oberoi has to drugs should be probed by the NCB," he said, adding that Oberoi along with Sandip Ssingh had made a biopic on Prime Minister Narendra Modi in 27 languages.
"If the NCB does not do an enquiry properly then the Mumbai Police will be asked to probe the case," Mr Deshmukh said, the report added.
Congress's demand to investigate Vivek Oberoi comes in the wake of attacks by BJP against the Shiv Sena-Congress-Nationalist Congress Party government in Maharashtra as NCB questioned several Bollywood actors, filmmakers and others close to the Congress in a widening drug link probe that emerged during the investigation of actor Sushant Singh Rajput's death.
Several members of Mumbai film industry were investigated as the drug angle in Sushant Singh Rajput's death case surfaced. Actors like Deepika Padukone, Sara Ali Khan, Shraddha Kapoor and Rakul Preet Singh were interrogated by the NCB after Sushant's girlfriend Rhea Chakraborty named them while being questioned by the agency.
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