'Drug racket only to deflect attention from Coronavirus, eco'

Bengaluru: With growing number of female stars being interrogated and arrested in the drug racket case from Bollywood, Tollywood and Sandalwood industries, actor-producer Parul Yadav jumped in support of Rhea Chakraborty, Ragini Dwivedi and Sanjjanaa Galrani.

In a statement, Parul Yadav rallied around her co-stars claiming that it seemed to be an attack on one gender. "To all 'patriots' generous in their contribution to the copious amounts of abuse showered on me for 'defending' Rhea, Ragini and Sanjjanaa. I believe that drug abuse is a serious concern and all efforts must be made to stamp out this menace. I will never justify the use of psychotropic substances. However, to focus the entire weight of the top investigative agencies in the nation on these three women who are, at worst, minor consumers, makes little sense. It almost feels like the government needed something sensational to take everyone's minds off the failure to manage Covid, the freefalling economy and the Chinese threat. I have been reading about the One Belt One Road project that the Chinese have been planning and that's a real threat to India. Our nation could be surrounded by Chinese controlled regimes soon. A failed state like Pakistan is borrowing so much from the Chinese that it's very likely that they will soon be a Chinese colony. Sri Lanka got the Hambantota port built with Chinese money and now the Chinese have a 99 year lease on it because Sri Lanka couldn't repay the loan... it's truly scary... Why is our national discourse not centred around how we can become a stronger nation – economically and politically."

Parul Yadav's posts on social media went viral. Soon, she found support in social media platforms. "The idea behind this investigation and the rush to arrest these three women is designed to sensationalise the matter and grab headlines. Drug abuse is spread across all sections of society and arresting some IT engineers for smoking a couple of joints won't even make the news let alone lead the news. This is unfair to these women. It's not even like the police has shown any inclination to go after major politicians or male actors – names surface periodically but nothing ever happens. It is disgusting that the police are leaking private videos and irrelevant personal details of Rhea, Ragini, and Sanjjanaa. They are innocent until proven guilty and its extremely painful to watch these videos of their interrogation surface. Are the police working for the people or are they working for the news channels? In fact, in one of the videos that surfaced about Sanjana you can see a policewoman record the action on her phone. The police are supposed to be an impartial investigative body not a source of yellow journalism. No one has any right to strip anyone of their dignity. This is shameful and does not do justice to the promise and premise of our Constitution" Paru further added.

Actress also shared a picture stating " I have to thank all of our fabulous news channels for inspiring me to create this poster."