Carrying forward its crackdown on the Bollywood-drug mafia links, the Narcotics Control Bureau (NCB) raided the home of well-known film producer Firoz A. Nadiadwala and seized drugs worth around Rs 3.59 lakh, an official said here on Sunday. The NCB has also arrested Nadiadwala's wife Shabana Saeed, besides three other drug peddlers in the operation conducted at different places in the city and in Thane during the day.
It seized 717.1 gms ganja, 74.1 gms charas and 95.1 gms MD (commercial quantity), worth Rs.3.59 lakh from Nadiadwala's home in Juhu and another location. Besides another 10 gms of ganja was recovered from another accused Wahid A. Kadir Shaikh, alias Sultan.
Saeed's statement was recorded after which she was placed under arrest, said the NCB official. There was speculation that Firoz Nadiadwala is likely to be summoned for interrogation, but there was no confirmation from the officials. The operation is part of the ongoing investigations over the past three months to unravel the nexus between Bollywood and the drugs mafia in the country's film capital.
The Nadiadwalas are a prominent family of film-makers credited with several blockbuster films and introducing major stars to Bollywood in the past over three decades. Nadiadwala's major productions include the Hera Pheri series, Welcome, Awara Pagal Deewana, Aarakshan and others.