Actress Chrisann Pereira, who landed in Sharjah on April 1 for an audition for a web series, was arrested at the airport as a trophy, handed over to her by an acquaintance, Ravi alias Rajesh Bobhate, had 10 gm. of weed hidden in a cavity. The police said, Ravi is an assistant general manager with a bank at Malvan in Bombay. Chrisann Pereira had acted in Sadak 2, in which she essayed the character of Naina Das.
Forty-two-year-old Ravi and one Paul Anthony (34) were arrested by the Bombay city crime branch on April 25 for allegedly planting drugs on the actress. The police said, the duo similarly trapped four other victims, for revenge. The two accused held grudges against all the five victims who unwittingly became drug carriers.
A few days prior to Chrisann’s departure, there was a fight between Chrisann’s mother, Premila, and Anthony’s sister over the issues of wearing masks for COVID-19 as well as feeding dogs. Anthony decided to seek revenge and hatched a conspiracy with Ravi. While Chrisann and another victim (Clen Rodrigues, a DJ) were caught in Sharjah, three escaped. The two arrested victims are in a Sharjah jail. The Bombay police are trying to convince Sharjah authorities about the innocence of the two arrested victims. They have video-recorded the statements of Anthony and Ravi and sent these, along with a copy of the FIR, to Sharjah authorities through diplomatic channels. The five victims and two accused are all residents of IC Colony at Borivli in Bombay.
Anthony and Ravi (Bobhate) were booked under IPC sections for cheating, forgery, breach of trust, extortion and criminal conspiracy and under the Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances Act. They were remanded to police custody till May 2 by the 37th metropolitan magistrate court in Bombay.
Ravi had handed Pereira a trophy which he said, someone would collect at the airport. When nobody came at the airport to collect the trophy, Chrisann spoke to her father soon after clearing Sharjah immigration, and decided to hand over the trophy to the airport authorities in Sharjah. The authorities found 10 gm. of weed in it and arrested the actress.
Anthony created an alibi by flying to Hyderabad with Premila on the pretext of helping her with a property deal. When Premila learnt of her daughter’s arrest, Anthony allegedly assured her that if she arranged for Rs. 80 lakh, he would bribe Sharjah police for her bail. That’s when Chrisann’s father filed a case. The police then learned of similar cases involving victims Clen Rodrigues, Rishikesh Pandya, Ken Rodrigues and Munisha D’mello. While Clen carried a trophy, Rishikesh and Ken did not carry trophies. Munisha dumped a drug-laced cake at Sharjah airport.