Birla executive sourced cocaine from drug peddlers, says chargesheet

Two alleged drug peddlers have emerged as the key persons who supplied cocaine to Anant Vardhan, a top executive of Yash Birla group, as per the chargesheet filed against him and his two associates today.

The chargesheet was filed at the Special Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances Act court here by the Narcotic Control Bureau (NCB).

"We have filed a chargesheet against Vardhan, President of Corporate affairs of the group, his bodyguard Dilip Palekar and peon Dharmu Rathod," said an NCB official.

"Sanjay and Javedbhai are the two drug peddlers we are looking for. We are still investigating the case as these names could be aliases," said an NCB source.

According to the chargesheet, accessed by PTI, Vardhan had told Sanjay to bring the contraband for 'personal consumption', and paid Rs 40,000 for it.

According to NCB, Sanjay was introduced to Vardhan by a person named Javedbhai of Kamthipura area in central Mumbai.

"We are certain that Vardhan used to source these contrabands from Kamthipura," said a source.

In the chargesheet, the NCB has cited statements of seven witnesses. Vardhan and his associates were arrested on January 11 this year and granted bail on January 18.

The case came to light when the Income Tax Department sleuths conducted a search at a five-star hotel in connection with a taxation issue related to the Yash Birla Group.

During the search, the IT officials found some contraband in the room where Vardhan was staying. They alerted the NCB, which confirmed seizure of 5 gm of cocaine