Former Karnataka minister late Jeevaraj Alva's son Aditya Alva, who is also the brother-in-law of Bollywood actor Vivek Oberoi, is among the 12 accused in the Sandalwood drug scandal that has rattled the state.
The Bengaluru Central Crime Branch (CCB) had filed a suo motu FIR against Kannada film actor Ragini Dwivedi and 11 others, at the Cottonpet police station, on Friday, for their alleged links with an international drug racket.
In the FIR filed by ACP K.C. Gautham, the accused have been booked under various sections of the Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances Act, 1985, and 120 B of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) for the purchase, possession, distribution and consumption of banned drugs at rave parties held in the city.
The CCB police arrested drug peddler Ravi Shankar, an RTO employee, on Thursday, while Rahul Shetty (real estate agent), Dwivedi, and Viren Khanna (party planner) were arrested on Friday. Khanna was picked up from Delhi by the CCB sleuths.
Recently, the Narcotics Control Bureau, which busted an international drug racket, confiscated a large cache of drugs and arrested three drug peddlers, had indicated that drugs were being supplied to some prominent musicians, Sandalwood actors, children of VIPs and college students.
Aditya Alva's name in the list of accused has unnerved the political circle too. Two days back, Prashanth Sambaragi, a film distributor in Bengaluru, had hinted that the drug racket involved a person from a leading political family in the state.
Aditya (31) is the son of late Jeevaraj Alva, who was the minister in Ramakrishna Hegde cabinet, and danseuse Nandini Alva. He is also the brother-in-law of Bollywood star Vivek Oberoi (who is married to Priyanka Alva).
The 12 accused named in the FIR are Shivaprakash, Ragini Dwivedi, Veeren Khanna, Prashanth Ranka, Vaibhav Jain, Adithya Alva, Loum Pepper, Prashanth Raju, Ashwin, Abhiswami, Rahul Thonshe and Vinay.
Loum Pepper Samba, a drug peddler, was arrested by the CCB for supplying drugs to Ravi and other celebrities.
