Sandalwood drug case: Forensic report confirms substance abuse in Kannada film industry, chargesheet filed

The Bengaluru police, probing the alleged drug abuse in the Kannada film industry, on Tuesday said the forensic report has confirmed that some of those arrested in connection with the case last year, were consuming drugs. Kannada film actresses Sanjana Galrani, Ragini Dwivedi, party organiser Viren Khanna, former minister late Jeevaraj Alva’s son Aditya Alva were among those arrested in the drugs case. “I am proud to announce that our Bengaluru police had worked speedily and impartially in investigating the drug cases. There is a good development in the case filed last year in September,” Bengaluru Police Commissioner, Kamal Pant told reporters here. He said the inquiry by the CCB and the evidence gathered by the team painstakingly has resulted in a positive report from the Forensic Science Laboratory in Hyderabad. Pant further said, “We have filed a charge sheet in the court, so I cannot say anything at this juncture but the FSL report has clearly proved that some people used to take drugs.” Hair samples of the accused were collected and sent to Hyderabad for tests and the report received now has established that they were doing drugs. According to police, the report will help during the trial of the case to prove the point that those arrested were drug users as well. Hailing the CCB for leading a speedy, fair and impartial investigation, Pant said this case was a lesson for the police officers because they were not sure whether they will be able to prove it because this was never done so scientifically in the past. “Now we are confident that we will get all the evidences. This is a victory for the CCB,” the official said. Besides people from the Kannada film industry, a few African nationals were also arrested. A few police officers who were leaking the information to the accused were also suspended during the course of investigation. The CCB swung into action after the Narcotics Control Bureau arrested Mohammed Anoop, Rijesh Ravindran and Anikha Dinesh in August 2020 for allegedly possessing drugs. The NCB said the trio was supplying drugs to people in the Kannada film industry.