Mumbai Police’s Crime Branch on Wednesday filed a 1,5,14-page charge sheet against three people for allegedly framing actor Chrisann Pereira in a drugs case.
Pereira, 27, spent nearly a month in a prison in Sharjah, UAE, after a small quantity of a narcotic was found concealed in a memento given to her by the accused.
The accused had allegedly also targeted in the same way Mumbai-based DJ Clayton Rodrigues, who was sentenced to 25 years in jail by a court in Sharjah for alleged possession of drugs.
The charge sheet, filed before a magistrate’s court, named Anthony Paul, his friend Rajesh alias Ravi Bobhate and another person who had provided them drugs, an official said.
The Crime Branch has named Paul as the mastermind in the charge sheet. It has removed Section 120- B (criminal conspiracy) of the Indian Penal Code in this case because Bobhate, who cooperated with Paul, was not aware that the people he was sending abroad were being implicated. Paul had told Bobhate that he was sending people to Dubai in lieu of commission. The police has imposed section 419 (whoever cheats by personation shall be punished with imprisonment) in this case.
Who is Chrisann Pereira and why was she arrested?
Pereira, who acted in Mahesh Bhatt-directed Bollywood movie Sadak 2, was arrested at the Sharjah airport on April 1 after drugs were found inside a memento that the accused had asked her to hand over to someone in the United Arab Emirates. After her arrest, Paul and Bobhate allegedly demanded Rs80 lakh from her mother to arrange her release.
The actor was released after the Mumbai Police sent case-related documents to the authorities in the UAE.
