INDIA BUSINESS WORLD - JUNE 2006
THE MONTH THAT WAS...

RAHUL ARRESTED, TRIES TO BLAME IT ON THE DEAD

   DELHI Police arrested Rahul Mahajan, son of late BJP leader Pramod Mahajan, under the Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances (NDPS) Act.

The arrest, made on charges of sale and purchase and consumption of drugs, came soon after Rahul's detailed interrogation by the police at Apollo Hospital on the events leading to his indisposition and death of Vivek Moitra, late Pramod Mahajan's personal secretary. The police are checking with the hospital authorities on how early Rahul can be discharged.

Justifying Rahul's arrest, the police claimed that they had “credible evidence” to prove that he had indeed consumed drugs along with Moitra who died due to a overdose. The narcotics were allegedly brought in by the four youths who visited the Mahajan household. While Moitra, who himself had asked the men to get the drugs, died, Rahul fell seriously ill and had to be revived by doctors at the Apollo Hospital.

After the authorities at Apollo Hospital declared Rahul as “fit” for questioning, a police team led by Mandir Marg SHO Ram Kishen arrived at the ICU of the hospital armed with video cameras to record his statement. As the questioning proceeded, ACP Suman Nalwa and Tughlaq Road SHO Madanjit Singh too joined in.

According to police sources, Rahul denied having snorted heroin, as alleged by the four men who visited the Mahajan house on the night of the incident, and claimed that the visitors that night were invitees of Moitra and he had nothing to do with them. Sources in the police said that during the interrogation, Rahul attempted to pin the blame on Moitra.

The police also summoned the doctors of Apollo Hospital to Tughlaq Road and questioned them about various aspects of the case including delay in informing the police about admission of Rahul in the hospital and his medical reports.

A close aide of late Pramod Mahajan, Harish Sharma, was interrogated again as the police set out to establish the sequence of events on the fateful night of June 1. The police will also interrogate another of Late Mahajan's aide Sudhanshu Mittal. Mittal, it be recalled, was in news recently for benefiting from the allotment of Reliance Infocomm shares.

Police also confronted Sahil with three other persons — Karan, Tishay and Rahul Malhotra — who were also present during the small gathering, to ascertain what actually transpired during the party.

Interestingly, Sahil Zaroo's lawyer Majeed Memon said the statement reportedly made by the 21-year-old Kashmiri youth that he had procured drugs for Vivek Moitra and Pramod Mahajan's son “does not hold good”.

Memon also claimed that Sahil went to the 7, Safdarjung, residence of Rahul to meet Moitra to get an air ticket to Srinagar released from the VIP quota as the two had known each other earlier.

“Moitra had called Sahil to Rahul's residence where he consumed some liquid or powder after which he fell sick. The story that Sahil gave drugs to Moitra is mere speculation,” he said. Sahil admitted during his interrogation that he had procured the drugs for Rahul and Vivek .