Rahul Mahajan

NEW DELHI: Rahul Mahajan, son of slain Bharatiya Janata Party leader Pramod Mahajan, was arrested on Monday by the Delhi police under the Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances (NDPS) Act. He will, however, continue to be at Apollo Hospital till his treatment is over.

Earlier, the police questioned Mr. Mahajan for almost three hours after he was declared fit to make a statement. It is learnt that Mr. Mahajan claimed that he was not familiar with the four men, Sahil, Rahul, Karan and Tishay, who had visited his father's 7 Safdarjung Road residence on the fateful night. He told the police that they had come to meet Bibek Moitra, the personal secretary to his father, who subsequently died.

Nigerians held

In a related development, the three Nigerian nationals, Mehmood Abdul Latif alias Abdullah, Ebiram Gouchukwo alias David and James Taibu, who were formally arrested on Sunday night on charges of supplying drugs to Sahil Zaroo, were remanded to 10-day police custody by a city court here on Monday. The police told the court that Mr. Mahajan might be made an accused in the case.

At a press conference, Additional Deputy Commissioner of Police (New Delhi) Manish Aggarwal said Mr. Mahajan was arrested on the basis of the "totality of evidence" collected by the police and interrogation of several persons. "We have sufficient evidence to effect the arrest of Mr. Mahajan and we are seeking opinion from doctors to find if he can be discharged from hospital," said Mr. Aggarwal.

Mr. Mahajan has been arrested on charges of consumption of drugs, lending his premises for commission of crime and also for abetting crime, that come under the purview of Section 27, Section 25 and Section 29 of the NDPS Act. Mr. Mahajan was arrested on paper around 7-30 p.m. after the police finished recording his statement.

About four doctors who attended on Mr. Mahajan were also questioned by the police to ascertain in what condition the patient was brought to the hospital besides the line of treatment and the reason thereof. Some more doctors would be questioned in this connection.

While there was no official confirmation on the nature of drug purportedly recovered from the possession of Moitra and the Safdarjung Road bungalow, sources said it was heroin in all probability.

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