New Delhi: Mumbai-based actor Chrisann Pereira, who was arrested in Sharjah earlier this month, after police there allegedly found opium in a trophy she was carrying, was released from prison Wednesday and will be able to return to the country “in 15-20 days”, ThePrint has learnt.
Pereira had been allegedly framed by Mumbai-based baker, Paul Anthony, as “revenge” for a grudge he bore her mother.
Mumbai Police’s senior inspector Deepak Sawant, the investigating officer in the case, told ThePrint over phone that though Pereira has been released, it will take another 15-20 days for legal proceedings to be completed in Sharjah, after which she will be able to return home.
“Her passport had been confiscated. She can return once she gets a clean chit from the courts. She is currently at a relative’s place. Investigations are underway,” Sawant added.
Pereira’s mother meanwhile told ThePrint that her daughter is trying to retrieve her passport.
As ThePrint had earlier reported, Paul allegedly framed the actor by getting his friend Rajesh Bobate to call her posing as a representative of a talent management company, and offering her an audition for a web series in Sharjah.
When the actor agreed to travel for the audition, he allegedly gave her a memento, asking her to deliver it to a friend there. Opium was allegedly concealed in the memento.
Both Anthony and Bobate have been arrested and will be in police custody till 2 May.
They have been charged under sections 420 (cheating and dishonestly inducing delivery of property), 465 (punishment for forgery) 468 ( forgery for purpose of cheating), 471 (using as genuine a forged document or electronic record), 385 (putting person in fear of injury in order to commit extortion) and 120B (punishment of criminal conspiracy) of the Indian Penal Code, as well as some sections of the Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances Act, 1985, Sawant said.
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Pereira ‘not the only target’
A senior officer in Mumbai Police had earlier told ThePrint that Anthony’s sister lived in the same building as the Pereiras and that he had claimed during interrogation to have felt “insulted” when Premila allegedly told him off for trying to hurl a chair at a stray dog last year.
On another occasion, the actor’s mother had allegedly asked him to wear a mask during the Covid pandemic wave, which Anthony is said to have told the police, enraged him and he decided to “fix the family”.
When Pereira reached Sharjah she reportedly became suspicious when no one came to meet her as she had been told. She then reportedly called her father, who asked her to approach police officers at the airport. When the memento was checked, police reportedly found the drugs and arrested her.
When the actor’s family did not hear from her in four days, they approached the Indian Embassy and were informed about her arrest, Sawant told ThePrint, adding that a complaint from the family was registered with the Mumbai Police on 25 April.
During the probe it was allegedly found that Anthony had framed four more people using the same modus operandi in the past one year, to seek “revenge”. While three of them have returned, one person — a Mumbai-based DJ, Clayton Rodrigues — is still in a prison in Sharjah, police said.
According to an officer of Mumbai Police, Paul “would try to extort money from the victims’ family, saying that he knew lawyers in Sharjah”. He had also allegedly demanded money from Pereira’s mother.
Mumbai Police has also told a magistrate’s court that it was currently inquiring into how the accused put the drugs into trophies and keepsakes.
Based on the primary investigation, the police will send a dossier to Sharjah to expedite Pereira’s and Clayton’s release and assist them in returning home, Mid-day reported Thursday.
(Edited by Uttara Ramaswamy)
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