Mumbai – Indian cricketer Rahul Sharma and South African Wayne Parnell are facing drugs charges after their detention at a party last year following an Indian Premier League game, reports said Thursday.
The two Pune Warriors players were among nearly 100 people detained for medical testing at an upmarket hotel in Mumbai last May which was raided by police who found drugs on the premises.
“We have filed a 1,200-page charge sheet against 86 persons while 35 accused, mostly foreigners, have been shown as wanted,” a police official told the Press Trust of India (PTI) news agency.
Parnell is among the wanted accused foreigners who left the country after the medical examination, the report said.
Both players have denied any wrongdoing.
Sharma said they had been invited by a friend to the gathering, a birthday celebration, which had appeared to be a “normal party” before the arrival of the police who found cocaine, MDMA and cannabis.
The leg-spinner, 26, has so far bagged six wickets in four one-day internationals and three wickets in two Twenty20 matches for India.
Left-arm paceman Parnell, 23, has played three Tests, 27 one-dayers and 17 T20 games for the Proteas. – Sapa-AFP