NEW DELHI, 7 June 2006 — Refused bail, Rahul Mahajan will be in police custody until tomorrow. Arrested on Monday evening after four hours of interrogation, Rahul was discharged from Apollo Hospital yesterday after being declared “fit for release.”

He was taken straight to the Tughlak Road police station and then produced at the Patiala House court. Metropolitan Magistrate A.K. Chaturvedi remanded him to police custody until June 8.

Rahul’s counsel Sunil Mittal argued that his client should be granted bail as only a little quantity of drugs was recovered in the case. Mittal also assured the court that Rahul would cooperate with the police. Police sought Rahul’s custody for further interrogation that they said would help the investigation into the case.

Although Rahul remained evasive about having taken drugs on Thursday evening, with evidence piling up against him, he faces a jail term of up to 10 years and/or a fine of 20,000 rupees. His relatives, friends and lawyers have over the past two days advised him to calmly accept this as his destiny and be prepared for long police questioning and even a stint in jail.

When questioned, “he (Rahul) kept on repeating just one thing, that he could not recall anything,” a senior police officer said. Rahul has been booked under various sections of the Narcotics Drugs and Psychotropic Substances (NDPS) Act. These include sale and purchase of drugs, consumption of drugs, use of residence for the purpose and conspiracy and abetment.

“We have arrested him on the basis of totality of evidence. We have sufficient evidence against him. We have enough witnesses and statements to prove that he took drugs on Thursday night,” Additional Deputy Commissioner of Police Manish Aggarwal said. Four people who were with Rahul and Vivek Moitra on Thursday night — Sahil Zarru, Trishay Khanna, Karan Ahuja, and Rahul Malhotra — have told police that Rahul did take drugs and had asked them to fetch cocaine.

According to police, Rahul told them: “I had wine and lost consciousness. I cannot recall what the others did after that, or if they consumed any substance... I did not know them (the visitors to 7, Safdarjung Road on June 1). They were Moitra’s friends.”

Moitra, Pramod Mahajan’s secretary, was brought dead to Apollo Hospital in the early hours of Friday. His autopsy confirmed he died of drug overdose.

Five doctors of Apollo were also questioned yesterday at the Tughlak Road police station. They are being quizzed to ascertain Rahul’s medical condition at the time of admission, the “line of treatment” followed to save him and on why were his medical records made public when the matter was under investigation. Contradictory reports regarding Rahul’s consumption of drugs and delay in informing the police have cast a shadow over the role of the doctors in the case.

Police are also investigating Pramod Mahajan’s former aide Harish Sharma for destroying evidence at the Safdarjung Road residence. Sharma rushed to the house after learning about Rahul’s critical condition and allegedly ordered cleaning of the room, where Rahul and others had consumed drinks and drugs. Police have filed a case against Sharma.

Told about the death of Moitra, the brother and assassin of Pramod Mahajan, Pravin, said: “This had to happen!” “It’s Vivek who is solely responsible for ruining our entire family. He has got what he deserved. This is retribution,” a well-placed source in Bombay’s Arthur Road Jail quoted Pravin as saying.

The remarks have added another twist to the saga following Pramod Mahajan’s dramatic death in April and the death of Moitra and the arrest of Rahul.

Questions are now being asked in political circles whether the party at Mahajan’s official bungalow was at all a case of drug overdose or perhaps a criminal conspiracy to eliminate those who knew too much.

Former Maharashtra deputy chief minister Gopinath Munde, Rahul’s uncle, has asserted that there had been an attempt to poison Rahul. Though investigators are piecing together the exact sequence of events on that fateful night, there is a strong possibility that the probe could take on another dimension.

That Pravin was upset at several close associates of his brother allegedly making money and held a grudge against him is public knowledge. In one instance, he claimed his brother was worth more than 20 billion rupees and that Pramod did not share with him his wealth.

— Additional input from Indo Asian News Service