Over the last couple of months, the headlines that have dominated most of India’s national media surrounds the death of Bollywood actor Sushant Singh Rajput. With the actor’s former girlfriend Rhea Chakraborty arrested, attention has shifted to Kangana Ranaut’s battle with the Maharashtra government. Meanwhile, a case with some parallels is playing out in the state of Karnataka too. All eyes are now on an alleged drug trafficking operation in Bengaluru, which, according to the police, had supporters and enablers in Sandalwood — the Kannada film industry. Here too, two prominent women actors — Ragini Dwivedi and Sanjjanaa Galrani have been arrested.
The Rhea Chakraborty case had led to a lot of buzz in Kannada media as it played out on prime time. Parallelly, in August, the Narcotics Control Bureau (NCB) had busted a drug racket in Bengaluru and arrested a woman called Anikha along with several others. A few days after this arrest, on August 29, the NCD issued a statement that actors and musicians in Karnataka were under the scanner for alleged drug use and trafficking. This triggered the media’s obsession with the case and soon, TV channels were full of speculation on who could be using drugs and what drugs. On September 1, filmmaker Indrajit Lankesh appeared on one TV channel and claimed that he had a list of names of people who were using drugs.
Even as several names did the rounds, on September 1, the Central Crime Branch of the Bengaluru police arrested a man named Ravi Shankar. A government employee, Ravi Shankar was accused of organising rave parties and soon his pictures with friend and actor Ragini Dwivedi went viral. Within a matter of days, the CCB arrested around 10 people, including two women actors (Ragini Dwivedi and Sanjjanaa Galrani), Viren Khanna, a prominent party planner who founded Bangalore Expats Club, and Vivek Oberoi’s brother-in-law Aditya Alva.
Like in the Rhea case, the material evidence, in this case, seems to be slim, or least that's the assumption one makes from what the police have revealed so far publicly. All that the CCB has gathered so far in terms of drug seizure is 10 gm of the recreational psychoactive drug MDMA. This was picked up at the residence of a Senegalese national, Loum Pepper, who is suspected to have supplied drugs to Viren Khanna.
The police case is that the actors were using drugs and also sharing them with others at these parties. But like in the Mumbai case, here too the police’s probe relies heavily on digital evidence: of alleged WhatsApp chats between the accused and an alleged WhatsApp group Viren Khanna had created to send invites to people for his private parties.
Though only the chargesheet will tell if the police have a watertight case to get the actors convicted, the coverage in Karnataka has been non-stop and titillating. This is much like Rhea Chakraborty’s case, where several national television channels have vilified her and painted her as a part of a clandestine drug syndicate.
‘Explosive new information’ or “mega exclusives” about the lives of the two women actors have become a regular occurrence across channels.
“Look at the clothes she (Sanjjana) is wearing and partying around. Forget our culture, there is a huge drug mafia in Karnataka,” began a bulletin in one of the regional channels. Pictures of actor Sanjjana’s engagement with Dr Azeez Pasha a few months ago also surfaced. Since the engagement had been kept as a secret by the family, the revelation became huge breaking news. Channels claimed that Sanjjana was married to Pasha, and accused him of peddling drugs. The CCB has, however, not questioned or arrested him till now.
Over the last few weeks, regional TV channels have been covering no other issue, save the drug case. On Monday, a regional channel put up a picture of Sanjjanaa Galrani with a former police officer. The channel’s anchor said, “The CCB had in its remand application said that the actors were tipped off about the probe against them by a source.” The suggestion was clear, that the police officer was the informant.
As with the Rhea case, there are several theories that have kept media channels competing with one another. While some claimed that the actors secured prime property, others said that they would take politicians and actors to Sri Lanka to take part in rave parties. The police have neither disclosed any such evidence nor mentioned it in remand reports.
Just as actor Kangana Ranaut has been alleging nepotism among the ‘Bollywood mafia’, there have been celebrities in the state who have been frequenting TV channels, taking on the role of creating a ‘drug-free Karnataka’. One such person is Bengaluru-based businessman Prashanth Sambargi who has been giving statements to the media every day, stating that Ragini and Sanjjanaa are “drug abusers” and have several connections. The CCB called Prasanth for questioning as he had claimed he had proof of the drug dealings. Sources in the agency told TNM that since he didn't have any proof other than pictures taken at parties, he has been told that he would be summoned again and given time to gather evidence.
So far, Ragini Dwivedi and Sanjjanaa Galrani have been accused of using drugs. The Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances Act does penalise users. However, the punishments are not harsh compared to those charged with selling drugs in commercial quantities. The NDPS also mentions that users must be rehabilitated. Although the legislation is not very sympathetic towards users, the criminalisation of drug use does carry a lot of stigma to it.
The existing stigma surrounding users, where they are treated as criminals, is hardly conducive towards effective rehabilitation. It is also to be noted that recreational, social drug use is more common in urban India than is widely acknowledged and not every case is one of addiction. However, the coverage in both the Rhea Chakraorty case as well as the Sandalwood actors' case has been sensational. The focus on what the women wore, ate, posted on social media and even their hand gestures have been intensely scrutinised.
In Karnataka, the misogynistic tone of news coverage has failed to ask questions of male actors, directors and producers in these industries, let alone probe the system that enables drug use.