Sandalwood drug case heavily hinges on digital evidence and call records

TNM spoke to CCB investigators and has pieced together the direction of the probe.
Sanjjana Galrani Ragini Dwivedi and Viren Khanna
Sanjjana Galrani Ragini Dwivedi and Viren Khanna
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The Bengaluru police have till Monday arrested ten people in connection with the drug case including actors Ragini Dwivedi and Sanjjana Galrani. While no drugs were found in possession of the actors as material evidence, the Central Crime Branch sleuths, who are investigating the case, say that there is digital evidence indicating alleged procurement, distribution and usage of drugs. Although the case has received widespread coverage, one aspect remained a conundrum: With no material evidence, what are the charges against the accused and what digital evidence do the police have?

So far those arrested include Ragini Dwivedi, Sanjjana Galrani, Ravi Shankar, Viren Khanna, Loum Pepper, Prashanth Ranka, Vaibha Jain, Niyaz, Pratheek Shetty, Rahul Tonse and Viren’s friend Aditya Agarwal. 

The Central Crime Branch had allegedly begun their probe into the drug trafficking case weeks before actor Ragini Dwivedi was arrested. Police say that they have several call records, which is indicative of abetment to procure drugs, and hence Ragini, Sanjjana and Viren were charged with section 29 (abetment to procure drugs and criminal conspiracy) of the Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances Act. However, the CCB did not find any drugs in their possession, when search and seizure operations were conducted at their respective homes in Bengaluru. 

CCB sources have accused actors Ragini Dwivedi and Sanjjana Galrani of allegedly purchasing drugs and sharing it with people who attended parties organised by Viren Khanna. CCB said that digital evidence of the same was obtained from Viren’s phone. The investigators allegedly found a WhatsApp group which included the accused in the case and also several other people who were invited to Viren Khanna’s private parties. CCB sources said that this is considered as digital evidence, which is why the accused were charged with section 27 (financing drug trafficking and harbouring accused). However, here too, police have not mentioned any material evidence or financial transactions that could prove the links yet. The Enforcement Directorate is now looking into financial transactions of the accused as they suspect money laundering. 

“There were chats where the accused made plans to organise parties, and also discussed procuring drugs,” the CCB source said. Police say the drugs were procured from another accused Loum Pepper, a Senegalese national residing in Bengaluru.

In the entire case, the police have found drugs only from one accused-  10 gm of MDMA at Loum Pepper’s residence, after his arrest. According to the NDPS Act, possession of 10 gm of MDMA or more is construed as commercial quantity. The punishment for possession of commercial quantity of drugs under the NDPS is a minimum of 10 years and maximum of 20 years imprisonment in addition to fine up to Rs 2 lakh. 

The police also found used butts at Viren Khanna’s residence on September 8. The CCB has sent these to the Forensic Science Laboratory to determine whether there were traces of marijuana or its byproducts. Police said that two other accused: Aditya Alva, brother-in-law of Bollywood actor Vivek Oberoi and Vaibhav Jain, a gold merchant and party organiser, allegedly procured drugs from Mumbai for these private parties. 

Police say that another accused, Ragini Dwivedi’s friend Ravi Shankar would also procure drugs for these parties. They also said that Ravi Shankar and the other accused were allegedly tipped off about the CCB’s probe into the drug trafficking. Police said that Ravi Shankar and Prashanth Ranka allegedly procured drugs from Pratheek Shetty, an alleged drug peddler, who was arrested in connection with the Rs 1.2 crore cocaine haul in 2018. Pratheek Shetty allegedly started peddling drugs again after he was out on bail in 2019. 

The CCB has allegedly recovered a WhatsApp chat between Prashanth and Ravi Shankar. Ravi Shankar allegedly told Prashanth to not buy drugs as his sources informed him of an ongoing probe. Prashanth is said to have replied stating he had quit a while ago. The CCB sleuths have also mentioned this chat in their remand application for Ragini Dwivedi. Other than this, the police have not mentioned any other digital or material evidence. 

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