Kannada actor Ragini Dwivedi arrested in drugs case

The Central Crime Branch (CCB) arrested Kannada film actor Ragini Dwivedi in connection with a drugs case on Friday (September 4), hours after her house in Bengaluru was raided.

Bengaluru Joint Commissioner of Police (Crime) Sandeep Patil has confirmed the arrest in a statement. Besides, two people named Rahul and Viren Khanna were also arrested, it said.

The police had raided her premises on Friday morning and detained her in connection with the case. She was taken to the CCB office in the afternoon and interrogated. Later, in the evening, she was arrested. Police said she did not cooperate during the interrogation.

Ms. Dwivedi’s arrest comes a day after her friend Ravi Shankar, a government employee, was interrogated and arrested by the police on charges of drug supply.

With this, four people have been arrested in the case.

According to police, Viren Khanna is a big catch. “He (Khanna) is the main person who organises big parties where drugs are consumed. He was in Delhi and two CCB police inspectors had gone to Delhi and arrested him,” Patil said.

He has been taken into police custody for four days, he added.

Ravi, a clerk in the Road Transport Office, was arrested on Thursday while Rahul, a realtor, was taken into custody today, Bengaluru police commissioner Kamal Pant said. Both of them used to go to high-end parties frequently and used to obtain drugs from foreign nationals, he said, adding that the two were peddlers and consumers.

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Ms. Dwivedi was in close contact with Ravi, the police chief claimed.

According to Pant, police have started the second level of investigation based on their revelations, and accordingly other people have also been called for questioning.

The CCB had raided Ragini Dwivedi’s residence early morning today after obtaining a search warrant from a court, a police officer said.

The CCB had served a notice to the actress on Wednesday, asking her to depose before them on Thursday, but she sent a team of lawyers seeking time till Monday. The police rejected her plea and directed her to appear before them on Friday.

The CCB intensified its investigation into a drugs haul in Bengaluru after the Narcotics Control Bureau (NCB) arrested three persons from the city, who were allegedly supplying drugs to singers and actors in the Kannada film industry, also known as “Sandalwood”.

Filmmaker and journalist Indrajit Lankesh had given his statement to the CCB about drug abuse in Sandalwood. He had also claimed that at least 15 people in the industry were involved in the drug trade.

Dwivedi, whose family hails from Haryana’s Rewari, was born in Bengaluru. She made her Sandalwood debut in the movie Veera Madakari in 2009. She shot to fame for her role in Kempe Gowda, Ragini IPS, Bangari, and Shiva.

The allegations of drug abuse in the Kannada film industry comes close on the heels of similar allegations in Bollywood in the wake of the death of actor Sushant Singh Rajput.

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