Police arrest Rahul under NDPS Act

Three days after being admitted to hospital after an alleged case of drug abuse, late BJP leader Pramod Mahajan's son Rahul Mahajan was arrested after being interrogated by a high-level police team in Apollo Hospital.

He has been arrested under the Narcotics Drugs and Psychotropic Substances (NDPS) Act. If found guilty, he can face a jail term up to one year and fine of Rs 20,000 or both.

While producing the three alleged Nigerian drug peddlers in front of Metropolitan Magistrate M M Chaturvedi, Delhi police officials also acceded to the possibility that charges may be brought against Mahajan.

A team led by Mandir Marg Station House Officer Ram Kishen and armed with video cameras reached the hospital to record the statement of Rahul Mahajan.

The team was later joined by ACP Suman Nalwa and Tughlak Road SHO Madanjit Singh for more intense interrogation. Mahajan was arrested after nearly eight hours of sustained interrogation.

After a round of 'informal questioning', Rahul, who was moved out of the ICU, was quizzed in detail. "We are here to do a formal interrogation of Rahul Mahajan," Nalwa said.

According to the hospital sources, Rahul was being initially questioned inside the ICU itself after doctors said he was fit to give a statement.

The police, after summoning the doctors of Apollo Hospital to the Tughlak Road police station, 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 the late BJP leader Pramod Mahajan, Harish Sharma, was interrogated for the second day today as the police set out to establish the sequence of events on the fateful night of June 1 when after a late night party Vivek Moitra died before being admitted to a hospital and Mahajan had a near-death experience and was hospitalised in a critical condition.

The police also confronted Sahil Zaroo 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.

In a related development, the white powder pouch handed over to the Central Forensic Sciences Laboratory (CFSL) by Delhi police was said to contain heroin. "The 1 inch by 1.5 inch red pouch handed over on June 2 contains heroin," a CFSL communique to Delhi police said.

The pouch was one of the five things handed over by the police to CFSL for examination. Besides the packet, two torn pieces of clothes belonging to Vivek Moitra and Rahul Mahajan and two samples of stomach wash of the two, collected by the police from Apollo Hospital, were also handed over to the CFSL for examination.