BENGALURU: The Central Crime Branch (CCB) has unearthed an alleged “cross-country drugs and prostitution racket” in the ongoing investigation into the illegal drugs case, top official sources told The New Indian Express.
“The police have reportedly seized critical evidence of drug abuse and prostitution in some high-end parties that were being thrown to select guests strictly on invitation basis. Under the guise of parties, the venues were being used for prostitution and drug abuse. In some parties, the host and ‘event managers’ had flown in women from overseas to entertain guests as paid service and contraband drugs were sold at the venue at premium prices,” he added.
“Some of these high-end parties have been hosted at premium star hotels. Whether the hotels were complicit in these illegal activities is a matter of investigation,” said the officer. It is reliably learnt that the CCB has collected a lot of digital evidence from the emails, WhatsApp chats, call data records (CDRS) of the accused, who have been arrested and are currently in judicial custody.
“The CCB has arrested two Africans — Loum Pepper Samba and Ossy Philips — who are reportedly emerging as the main source of contraband drugs to the accused,” the officer added.
“It is a layered network of people, who are part of the cartel of drugs and prostitution,” said top official sources.
On Monday, the CCB submitted “critical” evidence in a sealed cover in the ongoing investigation into the narcotic drugs case to the Special NDPS Court during the hearing of the bail plea of Ragini Dwivedi and Sanjjanaa Galrani and Rahul Thonse. The court has rejected the bail plea of all the three.
Meanwhile, sources told this newspaper that they have “specific clues” on Aditya Alva – son of former JD (S) leader late Jeevaraj Alva and brother-in-law of Bollywood actor Vivek Oberoi — and Shivaprakash Chappi, who are wanted in the case and continue to be absconding.
High Court disposes of petition seeking to appoint SIT to investigate drugs cases
BENGALURU: The Karnataka High Court on Monday disposed of a PIL filed by a city-based activist and advocate seeking directions to the state government to appoint a Special Investigation Team (SIT) to probe cases involving high-profile people in the drugs racket.
A division bench comprising Chief Justice Abhay Shreeniwas Oka and Justice Ashok S Kinagi disposed of the petition, saying that a vague prayer was made by the petitioner without pointing out a specific case which required an SIT probe.
Contending that there were a large number of accidents that involved high-profile people in the state from 2017 till date due to consumption of drugs, especially in Bengaluru Urban and Rural districts, petitioner Geetha Misra praised the Central Crime Branch for investigation in a case registered over drugs recently, but also said that a representation was submitted to the state government requesting to appoint an SIT but it was not considered.