Sandalwood drug bust: Actors Ragini Dwivedi & Sanjjanaa Galrani denied bail by NDPS court

In a massive development in the Sandalwood drug bust, an NDPS special court denied bail to Kannada Actresses - Ragini Dwivedi and Sanjjanaa Galrani on Monday. As of now, both actors will continue to remain in judicial custody. The drug bust which has seen several high profile arrests include Dwivedi, Galrani party planner Viren Khanna and jeweller Vaibhav Jain - all of whom are allegedly not co-operating with the Bengaluru Central Crime Branch (CCB) probe.

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Ragini Dwivedi & Sanjjanaa Galrani bail denied

Apart from these actors, Kannada TV anchor Anushree too summoned after her links with the now-arrested choreographer Kishore Shetty came to light. Shetty was arrested on September 19 along with his aide Aqeel Nausheek for alleged drug consumption and peddling. Meanwhile, CCB is still hunting for Kannada actor Aditya Alva along with Shivaprakash Chuppi, and Sheik Faazil - all prime accused in the case. Raids were done on Alva's house- who has been absconding since September 4.

Other people interrogated in the case include - Actor Diganth Manchale, Andrita Ray, Former Ranji cricketer NC Aiyappa. The arrests include - Kannada actors Ravishankar, Rahul, Niyaz, and Loum Pepper Samba apart from Dwivedi, Galrani, Khanna and Jain and drug peddlers - Azam Pasha, Masthan Vali, Mohammed Abbas, Mohammed Anoop, Anikha D and R Ravindran. The CCB seized 90 kg marijuana - worth Rs 50 lakh were seized by CCB, as per reports. Prior to these arrests, an African national identified as Benald Udenna, who allegedly supplied drugs to rave parties in Bengaluru was also arrested.

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Political link to drug nexus

The political angle to the drug racket came to light when CPI(M) state secretary's son - Kannada actor Bineesh Kodiyeri was named by one of the arrested accused - a drug peddler - Mohammed Anoop. Similarly, sources reported that actress Sanjjana Galrani and Congress MLA Zameer Ahmed Khan has allegedly attended an event in Colombo and visited a casino - while he was in JD (S). Khan claimed that when he was in JD(S), HD Revanna and 26 other MLAs had allegedly visited Colombo's casinos in 2014 where they were allegedly seen at a gambling event with Galrani and Vivek Oberoi.

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What is the Sandalwood drug racket?

The drug racket prevalent in the Kannada film industry - 'Sandalwood' came to light when deceased journalist Gauri Lankesh's brother - Indrajit Lankesh revealed the involvement of certain actors in the drug menace. Police sources claim that drugs being supplied through the ‘dark net’ was detected while raiding the places belonging to a few drug peddlers. NCB conducted raids in the city and seized drugs like  LSD, MDM, ecstasy, cannabis worth Rs 1.25 crores which were being supplied to local youths.

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