The owner of Curlies beach shack and nightclub, Edwin Nunes, was on Saturday taken into custody by the Hyderabad Police in connection with a drug case registered in August. Nunes is allegedly the “main supplier” of drugs making their way to Hyderabad.

Nunes, who was re-arrested on Thursday by the Goa Police on Thursday for submitting a fake Covid certificate to avoid questioning in the Sonali Phogat murder case, was taken into custody with the help of the Goa Police.

“He was arrested by a team of the Hyderabad Police who were camping in Goa ever since he was rearrested by the Goa Police,” a member of his team said.

Nunes, the co-owner of the nightclub where Phogat, a BJP leader and actress, spent her final hours before she succumbed to a case of suspected overdose of methamphetamine, was out in bail in the case. He was accused of supplying narcotics that were administered to the social media influencer, the night she passes away. The Goa Police had applied for cancellation of his bail.

“As per his bail order he was called on several occasions at Anjuna Police Station in the month of November 2022 for investigation purposes but he had produced a fake Covid certificate of a private diagnostics lab and evaded investigation. Hence the Anjuna Police had lodged another FIR against him for submitting a forged document before the Police Station,” deputy superintendent of police Jivba Dalvi said in a statement.

Police had approached the court for cancellation of bail stating he had violated the conditions of the bail.

Th Hyderabad Police had named Nunes in an FIR lodged in August after an alleged drug peddler — Preetesh Borkar – who was arrested by the Hyderabad Police, said the Curlies co-owner was among his many suppliers.

Borkar has allegedly told the Telangana Police that he used to procure the drugs from Tukaram Salgaocar aka Nana, Vikas Naik aka Vicky, Ramesh Chowhan, Steve, Edwin Nunes and Sanja Govekar – all residents of Goa several of whom own nightclubs along the South Anjuna beach.

Besides being arrested along with two other drug suppliers as a fallout of the Phogat case, Nunes saw a portion of the nightclub demolished after the National Green Tribunal dismissed an appeal against an order by the Goa Coastal Zone Management Authority that had ordered its demolition for being in violation of the Coastal Regulation Zone (CRZ) notification.

Phogat, was brought dead to St Anthony’s Hospital in Anjuna early on August 23 after she spent the previous night at Curlie, a beachfront nightclub, where she was allegedly drugged with methamphetamine (MDMA) by her aides – Sudhir Sangwan and Sukhwinder. The duo had accompanied her to the club.

The case has handed over to the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) following demands from the Phogat’s family, a khap panchayat and the Haryana administration.