Peddler who supplied drugs to serial framer arrested

After three days of questioning of Anthony Paul, a baker arrested for framing actor Chrisann Pereira, the Mumbai crime branch on Saturday nabbed a person for allegedly supplying the drugs used to frame the Sadak 2 actress

Mumbai: After three days of questioning of Anthony Paul, a baker arrested for framing actor Chrisann Pereira, the Mumbai crime branch on Saturday nabbed a person for allegedly supplying the drugs used to frame the Sadak 2 actress.

Mumbai, India - April 26, 2023: Mumbai Police arrest two accused identified as Anthony Paul (in pic), 35, who owns a bakery at Malad, from IC Colony, Borivli, and his associate Rajesh Babhote alias Ravi, 35, an assistant manager in IDBI for allegedly framing a 27-year-old actor Chrisann Pereira into becoming a drug mule by giving her the trophy before boarding the flight. (HT PHOTO) (Hindustan Times)

The man has been identified as Shantilal Rajput, a resident of Mira Road.

Pereira was arrested in Sharjah on April 1. She was released from the prison on April 26, but her passport is still with the Sharjah authority. After completing certain legal formalities, she will be returning to India next week.

Rajput, who is an electrician, had worked at Paul’s residence earlier. Paul was aware that Rajput is a small-time drug supplier. Paul took Rajput’s help to procure drugs which he used to hide in trophies and cakes before handing them over to his victims, a police officer said.

Rajput will be produced in the court on Sunday. He was arrested after his name was revealed by Paul, a police officer said.

Paul and his associate Rajesh Bobhate alias Ravi both are in police custody till May 2. Paul with the help of Bobhate tried to frame five people on whom he wanted to take revenge. During investigation, the police found that Paul not just framed Pereira but also four others as part of an extortion racket.

Police said that Paul ran up a heavy debt and came up with this convoluted ploy of extracting money from families after setting up his unsuspecting victims as drug mules and getting them arrested at Sharjah airport where he would call and give the authorities a tip off about certain incoming passengers carrying drugs.

Chrisann was sent to Sharjah, United Arab Emirates (UAE), for an audition. A little before she boarded the flight she was given a trophy stuffed with drugs by Ravi – the same trophy that one of Paul’s other victims, Rishikesh Pandya, had refused to carry. She was told that the trophy was part of the audition prop. But when she landed at Sharjah on April 1 she was promptly arrested by the authorities and later taken to Sharjah central prison.

The crime branch officers also learnt during their investigation that Paul had a grouse with Chrisann’s mother -- Premila Pereira—and hence he hatched a plan to frame her daughter promising her an audition for an international web-series in Sharjah. Before Chrisann he had used the same modus operandi on three other Borivali residents, one of whom was similarly arrested. Clayton Rodrigues, a disc jockey by profession, was trapped in Sharjah carrying a drugs-laced cake, given to him by Paul, and he is still in jail in Sharjah, said police officer.