A day after Ronnie, her manager, was arrested for his links to the recently-busted drug racket in Hyderabad, actress Kajal Aggarwal took to social media to clarify her stance. Clearly stating that her relationship with her manager was professional, Kajal said she does not condone any behaviour that could be detrimental for society.
“Just because I care for people who run errands for me does not imply that I can control their personal lives/choices,” she writes.
She further adds that her parents have always been her managers first. “My parents have always managed my career, and with everyone else from my industry, I share an extremely professional/cordial relationship. I am unaware of their whereabouts and activities once their professional duties with regards to me are completed,” she wrote.
— Kajal Aggarwal (@MsKajalAggarwal) July 25, 2017
Kajal’s stance of not supporting any drug-related activity and quickly disassociating herself from her own manager, reducing him to just another person who “ran errands”, isn’t a first coming from a celebrity.
Priyanka Chopra broke ties with her manager Prakash Jaju, after he claimed that she had been suicidal. In 2016, he said she had tried to end her life in 2002 after the death of her alleged former boyfriend Aseem Merchant’s mother. Priyanka rubbished his claims, and parted ways with him too. “First of all, it’s sad that the Indian media has given credibility to the man, who was in jail because he harassed me, without checking his history,” she had told PTI News, imploring the media to focus on the death of TV actress Pratyusha Bannerjee instead.
According to a Times of India report, Ronnie, who is also actress Raashi Khanna’s manager, was arrested on Monday after the Special Investigation Team (SIT) raided his residence. Police believe he might have close links to the main drug peddlers. The alleged drug cartel kingpin, Calvin Mascarenhas, was reportedly known to many in the industry. His phone records threw up the names of many film celebrities, and also led to his arrest.
Police discovered that nearly a thousand students from leading private schools and colleges in Hyderabad were using high-end drugs such as LSD (lysergic acid diethylamide) and MDMA (methylenedioxy-methamphetamine). Advisories have been issued to over 50 schools and colleges so far.
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Among the 13 persons arrested since the racket was exposed on July 2 is a US citizen identified as Dundu Anish, a former aerospace engineer who had worked with the NASA; and seven B.Tech graduates, most of whom were working with MNCs in Hyderabad.
Celebrities such as Puri Jagannadh, P Navdeep, Tarun Kumar, A Tanish, P Subbaraju and Mumait Khan, cinematographer Shyam K Naidu, singer Ananda Krishna Nandu and art director Chinna N Dharmarao received notices. Actor Ravi Teja, too, is reportedly under the scanner, because of his recently-deceased brother Bharath’s run-ins with drugs and the police in the past.