Maharashtra Congress has reiterated its demand for a probe into producer Sandip Ssingh's alleged link with the drug racket.
In a series of tweets, Maharashtra Congress general secretary and spokesperson Sachin Sawant said that the investigating agencies could be deliberately shielding Sandip Ssing as well as actor Vivek Oberoi.Both Oberoi and Ssingh had together produced a biopic on Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
Yesterday, Bengaluru police raided actor Vivek Oberoi's Mumbai residence in connection with the sandalwood drug scandal probe. Earlier, the police had raided former Karnataka minister late Jeevaraj Alva's son Aditya Alva, who is the brother-in-law of Vivek Oberoi.
Sawant, in a tweet, said, "I had demanded with NCB to investigate the BJP Drug connection in Bollywood. In my questions to NCB, I had specifically mentioned the name of Aditya Alva found in the Sandalwood drug racket who is brother-in-law of Vivek Oberoi who is a partner of Sandeep Ssingh. But NCB didn't pay heed".
I had demanded with NCB to investigate the BJP Drug connection in bollywood. In my questions to NCB I had specifically mentioned name of Aditya Alva found in Sandalwood drug racket who is brother in law of Vivek Oberoi who is partner of Sandeep Ssingh. But NCB didn't pay heed https://t.co/lwHGTtvujc
— Sachin Sawant सचिन सावंत (@sachin_inc) October 16, 2020
Sawant wanted to know why complaints against Sandeep Ssingh were being overlooked.
"Not only us, but BJP leader Subramaniam Swamy had also tweeted demanding Ssingh's probe and why he frequently visits Dubai. NCB has been summoning Bollywood actors, but the demand for the probe of Ssingh is overlooked," Sawant asked why even Kangana Ranaut was not called for questioning by the probe agency.
Meanwhile, Priyanka Alva, Vivek Oberoi's wife, has been served a notice by the Bengaluru Central Crime Branch in connection with the Sandalwood drug case. Alva was summoned by the crime branch at 12 pm.
What is Sandalwood drug case?
Over the last few weeks, the Karnataka Police arrested a bunch of people, including some Kannada actors like Ragini Dwivedi, Sanjjanaa Galrani, from the Kannada film industry, also known as "Sandalwood". The police also nabbed rave party organiser Viren Khanna, realtor Rahul Thonse, and a few Nigerian citizens in connection with the drug case.The Central Crime Branch (CCB) of Bengaluru police have also named Aditya Alva, as well as film producer Shiva Prakash in its FIR.
The CCB intensified its investigations after the NCB arrested three people allegedly supplying drugs to singers and actors in the Kannada film industry on August 28. The NCB claimed the racket was running since 2015, was helmed by Bengaluru-based Anikha Dinesh who was assisted by Anoop Mohammed and Rijesh Ravichandran from Kerala. Large quantities of Ecstasy pills and LSD blots worth Rs 20 lakh were recovered from an apartment in Bengaluru.
Following the NCB's seizure of drugs in August, Kannada film director Indrajit Lankesh--brother of slain journalist Gauri Lankesh, claimed to have information on several celebrities who frequently used drugs at parties. Lankesh named Ragini Dwivedi, Sanjjanaa Galrani and 13 others from the industry in the alleged drug case.