The Enforcement Directorate (ED) grilled filmmaker Puri Jagannadh for more than 10 hours on Tuesday, August 31, 2021. The ED, which is probing the money laundering angle in the drug trafficking case, questioned Puri about his financial transactions with African countries.
As per reports, Puri explained that he sent money to Africa for film shootings purposes. The officials asked him to provide full details of the transactions that took place during the shooting of any film. Puri said full details on those transactions would be submitted soon. As part of the investigation, officers showed photos of three African drug peddlers and questioned his connection with them. However, the director denied any connections with them.
While the Liger director was in the ED office for questioning, actor-producer Bandla Ganesh also visited the office. He told the media that he has no connection with the investigation, but he came as moral support to Puri. The director was accompanied by his son, Akash Puri and Chartered Accountant Sridhar.
It is learned that in July 2017, drug peddler Kelvin was arrested by excise officials. During the investigation, the officials found the phone numbers of some celebrities and WhatsApp chats on the accused phone. The officials summoned and questioned 12 people from the industry based on the chats available on Kelvin’s phone.