The Bengaluru police, in its remand application for Ragini Dwivedi to the 31st Additional Chief Metropolitan Magistrate, has stated that the accused in the drug case were allegedly tipped off two months ago regarding the Central Crime Branch’s probe into the drug use at high profile parties.
The Central Crime Branch sleuths have allegedly recovered chats that accused Ravi Shankar, a friend of Ragini Dwivedi along with another accused person Prashanth Ranka, who has been accused of procuring drugs for these parties that were held at five star hotels, pubs, nightclubs and farmhouses.
Ravi Shankar allegedly wrote, “Don’t talk to drug peddlers,” to which Prashanth Ranka allegedly said that he had not been consuming drugs for a long time. Ravi Shankar and Prashanth Ranka allegedly discussed the probe being conducted by Joint Commissioner of Police (Crime) Sandeep Patil. “Big time tracking is going on...Sandeep Patil sir...Came to know from sources yesterday,” Ravi Shankar allegedly wrote to Prashanth Ranka.
The CCB also stated that they retrieved chats between Ravi Shankar and Sengalese national accused of peddling drugs, Loum Pepper. Ravi Shankar is said to have asked Lou Pepper for a score of drugs less than a gram. “Get very very good stuff… 2G celebrity stuff… Give me less than 1 gram,” Ravi Shankar allegedly wrote in the chat. “No is because it is in rock form that is why it is complete 1G,” Loum Pepper is said to have replied.
CCB sources said that upon interrogation, they learned that Ravi Shankar had procured cocaine, an opiate known to have addictive properties, from Loum Pepper for parties that were held at various locations in the city.
The remand application states that Ragini Dwivedi, her long-time friend Shivaprasad, party planner Viren Khanna, Aditya Alva, Prashanth Ranka, Vaibhav Jain, Loum Pepper, Prashanth Raju, Ashwin, Abhiswamy, Rahul Tonse and others were members of a ring, where high profile parties involving celebrities were organised. The CCB stated that the accused persons procured marijuana, MDMA (ecstasy), cocaine and LSD for these parties for the consumption of those who attended.
Police said that the drugs were procured from Andhra Pradesh, Punjab, Kerala, Mumbai, Goa and countries abroad. “The accused brought drugs from these places and distributed it to those who attended the parties. There is a need to probe the inter-state and international level drug racket,” the CCB wrote in its remand application.