Puri Jagannath appeared before Excise department in drugs case .

Puri Jagannath appeared before the officials of the Excise department in Hyderabad on 19th july 2017 Wednesday. The Tollywood film director was one of the twelve celebrities who were issued notices in connection with the recent drug racket busted by agencies. The special task force that is probing the massive drug racket chanced upon the names of people from the Telugu film industry after accessing contact and call record details of peddlers. So far, twelve people have been arrested for peddling, possessing and pushing narcotics to clients including school and college students.

One artist has been summoned on each day till the month end.

Actresses Charmee Kaur and Mumaith Khan are scheduled to be questioned on July 20 and July 21 respectively. As notice could not be served on Mumaith Khan, an SIT team went to Mumbai, where she is shooting for a Telugu reality show.

Actors Ravi Teja, Navdeep, Tarun, Subbaraju and Nandu, cinematographer Shyam K Naidu and art director Chinna are among the other celebrities who will be questioned for their alleged links with the drug peddlers arrested in the case.

The department had issued notices to celebrities asking them to appear between July 19 and 27. While many who received the notices claimed that they did neither knew the peddlers nor used drugs, the excise department officials have termed the questioning a part of ongoing investigations. Calvin Mascarenhas, the prime accused in the racket gave out names of his clients, that also included people from the film industry. Each accused used multiple sim cards and the prime accused alone has close to 1,500 contacts, all suspected to be drug users. Notices are likely to be issued to others from the industry after the officials wrap up first round of questioning of those who have been summoned.