BENGALURU: The Directorate of Enforcement (ED) has questioned all the accused in the narcotic drugs case, who have been recently arrested by the Central Crime Branch (CCB) and the Narcotics Control Bureau (NCB) under the Narcotic Drugs & Psychotropic Substances (NDPS) Act, 1985. The accused are currently lodged in judicial custody at the Bengaluru Central Prison.
According to sources, the ED officials have been visiting the Central prison for questioning the accused, including Sandalwood actors Ragini Dwivedi and Sanjjanaa Galrani, on the source and supply of the illicit drugs. “The ED investigation under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA), 2002 is to verify if they had used drugs to make money and whether money thus earned has been laundered. So far, evidence of money laundering has not emerged in the preliminary investigation,” said an official source.
He added that the tracking of the financial trail in illicit drug cases is an intense and laborious process. “It is a complex and organised network, which extends outside the country. Cryptocurrency is being used in the darknet for procuring illicit drugs. It is a huge challenge to track peer-to-peer transactions,” he added.
The CCB has arrested around 15 people in the illicit drugs case.
The NCB last month had arrested three accused M Anoop, R Ravindran and Anikha D in the NDPS case. Anikha from whose house in Doddagubbi, the NCB had allegedly recovered 270 MDMA pills weighing 111.6 gm, is the alleged main source of information on the drug network in the film and entertainment industry. “She has reportedly married an African national and has been peddling drugs for some time.
Whether she was trapped into marriage for drug peddling is subject to investigation,” said the officer.
Investigation into several NDPS cases has revealed that women have reportedly been trapped in relationships and even marriage, by drug peddlers, majority of who are foreigners. Meanwhile, as per sources, Ragini and Sanjjannaa, are likely to be shifted to the women undertrial prisoners ward on Monday.
Ganja worth Rs 2.5 lakh seized in Belagavi
Belagavi: City Crime Investigation Bureau (CCIB) sleuths raided a place near the wholesale fruit market and seized 15.5 kg of ganja worth Rs 2.5 lakh on Friday and arrested three people. The accused Mallappa Siddaram Nippani (45) hails from Mugalkhod village in Raibag taluk, while Monappa Mallappa Waad (35) and Vishwaraj Hanymanth Bainar (26) are residents of Aalur village in Kalaburagi district. Acting on a tip off, police raided the place and seized the ganja.
Drugs worth Rs 24 L seized, one from Maha held
Belagavi: District Crime Information Bureau (DCIB) personnel arrested a drug peddler and seized 120 kg of ganja worth Rs 24 lakh from him recently. The accused, Ashfaq Mainuddin Mulla, is a resident of Miraj in Maharashtra. Wasim Shaikh of Miraj, who has been already arrested in a case, spilled the beans about Mulla, leading to his arrest. Acting on the information, the police hatched a plan and apprehended the accused near a pump house on the outskirts of Mhaisal village near Miraj. Apart from ganja worth Rs 24 lakh, a car and a motorbike, all worth Rs 28.5 lakh were seized from him. Mulla had procured ganja from Warangal and Hyderabad, and was supplying it people in Sangli in Maharashtra, Belagavi and Dharwad in Karnataka. Now, the police are in search of two others who were supplying ganja to Mulla. Under the guidance of SP Laxman Nimbaragi, DCIB Police Inspector Ningangouda Patil led team arrested Mulla.