Actress held for drug smuggling in UAE, kin says she was scammed

Mumbai April 25: Actress Chrisann Pereira, who appeared in the films Sadak 2 and Batla House, has been arrested in the UAE for alleged drug smuggling. She is currently being held at Sharjah Central Jail. According to her family, she was deceived on the pretext of being offered a role in an international web-series. “We have been seeking help from the authorities, but they are not listening. The city police have not even registered our complaint or listened to our concerns,” said Kevin Pereira, the actress’s brother.

According to the family, the scam began when Chrisann’s mother Premila Pereira received a message from someone who identified himself as Ravi, who claimed that he had met her for real estate work and offered to introduce Chrisann, 27, to his ‘Talent Pool’ team. He asked if Chrisann was available to meet for an interview for an upcoming international web-series at the Grand Hyatt Mumbai Hotel & Residences at Santacruz East at 1.30 pm on March 25.

“He said the audition would take a day and that he would make all arrangements for her stay and travel. Chrisann went for the audition. She was then informed she had to fly to Dubai on April 1. Since her passport was expiring on April 10, he hurried the process and booked a flight (Air Arabia G9 G9402) to Sharjah instead of Dubai and also claimed that he had booked her return ticket for April 3,” Kevin, Chrisann’s brother, stated.

As per the family, before taking the flight to Sharjah, ‘Ravi’ called her to the Westin Mumbai Garden City at Goregaon and then changed the venue to a coffee shop that is 10 minutes away from the Mumbai International Airport (T2). At the meeting, ‘Ravi’ handed over a trophy to her, claiming that it was part of the audition script and would be required for the audition. Accordingly, she carried the trophy with her and travelled from T2 to Sharjah.

“On landing, she turned on her mobile phone to inform us that she had landed safely on the family WhatsApp group. She immediately started to check the WhatsApp messages that were sent earlier by Ravi. To her surprise, all the chats had disappeared via the disappearing messages feature. Thereafter, she called the hotel to confirm the booking and the pick-up. The hotel informed her that there was no such booking in her name,” Kevin said.

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“Then she felt that she was being framed by Ravi, who had handed over the trophy to her. Immediately, she called me and my father, Mark Pereira, in Mumbai and informed us about the situation and the trophy. I told her to inform the airport police immediately, although she booked the next flight to India, which was at 9.30 am local time,” Kevin added.

The family said that when she went to meet the cops, her phone battery was at three per cent. As she was talking to the authorities, informing them about the scam, she cut the call, saying that the phone was about to die. “Thereafter, we have not heard from her. We approached the Mumbai police station in our jurisdiction and lodged a complaint that she is not contactable and was supposed to return on April 3,” Kevin told mid-day.

Later, the family was informed via email by the Consulate General of India (CGI) that she had been arrested and put in Sharjah Central Jail, and on April 10, the family was informed by the Consulate that Chrisann had been charged with drugs found in the trophy handed over to her by Ravi.

“We went to various police stations, and everyone is saying that it is not in their jurisdiction and not even taking our complaint to interrogate Ravi,” Kevin said. The anxious family has hired a personal lawyer in Dubai to deal with the case and also seeking help from the ministry of external affairs (MEA). However, they say they have not received any help from the Indian authorities.