The Narcotics Control Bureau (NCB) on Wednesday arrested actor Ajaz Khan after eight hours of interrogation in connection with a drug case. He was taken into custody, a day after he was questioned over restricted drugs found at his Mumbai home. Khan was detained at the Mumbai airport upon his arrival from Rajasthan.
The agency also conducted raids at two locations in Mumbai in connection with the matter. The agency said it had found alprazolam tablets from his residence during searches in the city’s Andheri and Lokhandwala areas. Aijaz Khan is part of narcotics peddler Shadab Farooque Shaikh alias Shadab Batata’s syndicate, the NCB has said. Shaikh was arrested last Thursday and over 2 kilograms of the banned mephedrone drug were recovered from him. Speaking to reporters outside the office, Mr Khan had claimed he was not detained but had gone to meet the officers voluntarily. After taking into custody also, he insisted on his innocence. The NCB has in recent months tightened the screws on the alleged Bollywood-narcotics syndicate with searches, interrogations, and arrests being made in this connection. The investigations are linked to actor Sushant Singh Rajput’s death last year.
Last year in April, the actor had been arrested for indulging in acts of defamation, hate speech, and violation of prohibitory orders. In July 2019, he was arrested by the cybercrime police for creating and uploading ‘objectionable’ videos on social media. Khan, who has worked in several Hindi and Telugu films, first got the public attention when he participated in the seventh season of the reality show ‘Big Boss’, and was often seen falling out with fellow contestants using coarse language and rough behaviour.
