Framed in drugs case, Chrisann Pareira returns home after four months

More than four months after she was framed by a Borivali-based baker in a drugs case and arrested in Sharjah, United Arab Emirates (UAE), Sadak 2 actor Chrisann Pareira returned to Mumbai on Wednesday.

The 27-year-old Borivali resident was arrested on April 1, and after a court granted her bail on April 26, she was released from jail. On June 13, the Sharjah police dropped the charges against the actor after their Mumbai counterpart found that the drugs – marijuana - were planted on her by the baker and his two accomplices. However, her return to India was delayed due to legal formalities, police said.

On Thursday, Chrisann along with her brother Kevin visited the Mumbai police headquarters and met police commissioner Vivek Phansalkar, special commissioner Deven Bharti, joint commissioner (crime branch) Lakhmi Gautam, and police inspector Deepak Sawant to thank them for their help in the case against her.

Sawant investigated the case registered against Anthony Paul, the baker, and his accomplices – Rajesh Babhote, 42, a deputy general manager with IDBI Bank, and Shantilal Rajput, an electrician who had allegedly arranged the drugs, police officers said. The three of them were arrested.

Chrisann’s case has turned the spotlight on Paul who had also framed one more Borivali resident using the same modus operandi and attempted to frame three others. Police officers said Paul, who ran up a heavy debt, came up with this idea of making a fast buck. He would plant drugs on his victims and send them to Sharjah on one pretext or another. He would then tip off Sharjah airport authorities about certain incoming passengers carrying drugs and get them arrested after which he would extort money from their families in exchange of extricating them of charges, the officers added.

As per the FIR registered on April 24 by the Vakola police, Chrisann on March 23 received a message from Babhote, who identified himself as Ravi and owner of a firm ‘Talent Pool’. He asked her to come to a five-star hotel on March 25 for an interview for a role in an international web series.

At the interview she was told that she would need to go to Dubai for a day on April 1 for an audition, and that the expenses would be borne by the company. Around 2.30 pm on April 1, Babhote met her at a coffee shop in Andheri and handed her a trophy saying it was part of the audition script, the FIR said.

When Chrisann reached Sharjah, she found that she had not been booked at the Hilton hotel as promised and realising that something was wrong, she approached the airport police who checked her baggage and the trophy and found marijuana in it. She was arrested.

Her family approached Mumbai crime branch. A crime branch officer said Paul had a score to settle with Chrisann’s mother, Premila, and hence hatched a plan to frame her daughter. The officer said Paul had travelled to Hyderabad with Premila on the day her daughter was arrested and had told her that he had contacts in Sharjah and offered to help the actor by arranging a lawyer for her there. He had initially quoted a sum of ₹1 crore for this help, which he later brought down to ₹80 lakh, the officer said.

Police officers said before Chrisann, Paul had set up Borivali resident Clayton Rodrigues, a disc jockey, with a drugs-laced cake. He is still languishing in a Sharjah jail. Paul had similarly tried to frame his ex-girlfriend’s sister, a dress designer from Borivali, one Ken Rodrigues, and Rishikesh Pandya, who worked in an events management firm, the officers added.