The Central Crime Branch of the Bengaluru police have filed a First Information Report (FIR) against 12 accused including actor Ragini Dwivedi and high-profile party planner Viren Khanna in the drug bust case. The Central Crime Branch’s officers registered a suo motu FIR at the Cottonpet Police Station and have named Shivaprakash alias Chippi as the prime accused. Ragini Dwivedi and Viren Khanna are the second and third accused persons in the case. The other people named in the FIR include Prashant Ranka, Vaibhav Jain, Aditya Alva, Loum Pepper Ssamba, Prashant Raju, Ashwin alias Boogie, Abhiswamy, Rahul Tonse, Vinay and others.
The CCB on Saturday arrested Loum Pepper Samba, who was allegedly distributing drugs to the celebrities and their associates.
Loum Pepper Samba
Ragini Dwivedi and the other accused have been booked under section 120b (criminal conspiracy) of the Indian Penal Code, and sections 21 (possession, purchase or uses any manufactured drug or any preparation containing any manufactured drug shall be punishable), 21(c) (rigorous imprisonment not less than 10 years), 27a (punishment for financing illicit traffic and harbouring offenders), 27b (consumption of any narcotic drug or psychotropic substance) and 29 (Whoever abets, or is a party to a criminal conspiracy to commit an offence is punishable) of the Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances Act, 1985.
Ragini, an actor who has been a part of many Kannada movies is friends with Ravi Shankar, a man who according to the police was procuring and supplying drugs in parties. Viren Khanna is an event manager who organises high end parties in Bengaluru, especially for expats. He runs the Bangalore Expat Club that has thousands of members and organises parties.
However, Ragini Dwivedi’s friend Ravi Shankar and another arrested person Rahul Shetty have not been named in this FIR.
CCB sources said that the investigators are still questioning Rahul Shetty and that they are gathering more information and evidence based on his interrogation. However, Ravi Shankar has allegedly been booked in connection with another case in 2018. The CCB, at the time, had busted a drug distribution racket in the city, where Rs 1.5 crore worth of cocaine, MDMA and hashish were seized. Three Nigerian nationals and one resident of Bengaluru named Prateek Shetty were arrested in the case.
CCB sources say that Ravi Shankar allegedly procured drugs from Prateek Shetty. “He has been booked in another case. He will be questioned in connection with the recent drug case soon and he too will be produced before the magistrate,” a senior official with the CCB said.
Meanwhile, the CCB’s Anti-Narcotics wing also arrested other drug peddlers, who were selling hash oil and weed oil. The police have arrested A Subramani, Vidush and Jashin in connection with the case. 2.1 kg of hash oil and 2 kg of weed oil were seized along with a weighing scale. Police said that Vidush, who was studying information technology from a college in Bedfordshire in the UK, was a resident of Bengaluru, allegedly procured the oil from Visakhapatnam.
Police said that the hash and weed oil was packed in empty Parachute Oil bottles and brought to the city. The two other accused allegedly packed and sold the contraband.