NDPS case registered by Kochi city police turns murkier as links with film actors emerge

The arrest of two persons from a premium hotel at Kundannoor under the Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances (NDPS) Act on October 6 (Sunday) turned murkier after the Maradu police investigating the case claimed that two film personalities were among the 20 people who had visited the accused at the hotel.

Shihas, 55, of Kottarakkara in Kollam, and Omprakash, of Valiyathura in Thiruvananthapuram, were granted bail by the Ernakulam Judicial First Class Magistrate on October 7 (Monday) dismissing the police plea for their custody. The remand report submitted by the police claimed that Sreenath Bhasi and Prayaga Martin were among the 20 persons who had visited the accused in their rooms.

“We will probe the purpose of visits by these people and record their statements. We did not get a sizeable quantity of drugs from the rooms of the accused, and that was perhaps the reason they managed to get bail. Whether the drug they brought was consumed by them or sold will also be probed,” said a senior police officer.

Meanwhile, the city police have taken into custody one Binu Joseph, a history-sheeter from Elamakkara, on suspicion that he was also at the hotel.

The police had seized a zip cover that contained residues of a white powder, reportedly cocaine, and four litres of foreign liquor in eight bottles from the room of Shihas. According to the remand report, Shihas admitted that he and Omprakash had brought cocaine in connection with the concert of an internationally acclaimed artiste in Bolgatty.

The accused had booked three rooms in the hotel. However, the rooms were booked by one Bobby Chalapathy, said the remand report. The police had reportedly sought the custodial interrogation of the accused to inquire further about Chalapathy, to determine the source of the drugs, and to investigate whether additional drugs had been stored elsewhere. The remand report also drew attention to the fact that the second accused, Omprakash, has 30 cases against him.

The remand report said the arrests were made based on intelligence reports that the accused were into smuggling in cocaine from abroad and selling it in Ernakulam and other districts for DJ parities. They had been in Kochi multiple times before but managed to evade the police, and Omprakash used to book hotel rooms in the name of others, the report added.