BENGALURU: The Directorate of Enforcement (ED) is examining the financial transactions in the recent drug bust cases done by the city police to verify the money laundering angle. Contrary to some reports, the ED has so far not issued notices to Sandalwood actors Ragini Dwivedi and Sanjjanaa Galrani or any of the accused in the drug cases, informed sources told The New Sunday Express.
Ragini and Sanjjana were arrested this week under the Narcotic Drugs & Psychotropic Substances (NDPS) Act by the Central Crime Branch (CCB), which had registered a suo motu case at Cottonpet police station on September 4 against 12 accused. The two actors have been remanded in police custody.
“There is a huge aspect of financial gain behind the drug trafficking network. This cannot be small money and there may be multiple players. Apart from the Cottonpet drugs case, this week the City police had seized over one tonne of cannabis (ganja) worth over Rs 6 crore from a warehouse in Kalaburagi. Someone has financed the sourcing of the narcotic drug and stands to gain heavily from it.
The ED is looking at the multiple FIRs registered by the police to find out the financial transactions and the money trail in the contraband network,” the officer said.
Mode of transfer
“The financial trail will also give the agency an insight into any international money transaction and whether hawala was a mode of transfer of money and payment,” he added. A team of ED officials visited the CCB office on September 10 and had interacted with the investigating officers in the Cottonpet drugs case in which CCB has named 12 accused under provisions of the NDPS Act.