Jeevaraj Alva's son Aditya, BBMP Congress corporator's son in drugs case

Bengaluru: After the Central Crime Branch (CCB) conducted raids at Ragini Dwivedi's upscale apartment in Yelahanka and detained her over the drug scandal involving prominent names in the Kannada film industry, more skeletons are tumbling out of the drugs closet.

The drug racket in Bengaluru appears to be much bigger than thought. It is not just Sandalwood stars, the drug scandal rocking the Karnataka film industry has now taken a political turn with the Narcotics Control Bureau (NCB) bringing several local political leaders and their kin under its scanner.

On Sunday, the Narcotics Control Bureau (NCB) conducted a raid at the residence of Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) Congress corporator Keshavamurthy and his son. The NCB zonal and Mumbai officials conducted raids at the Keshavamurthy's residence and issued a notice to his son Yashas to appear before the NCB on September 7 in connection with drug peddlers. Yashas has been asked to depose before it in Mumbai on Monday.

Earlier, former Karnataka minister late Jeevaraj Alva's son Aditya Alva, who is also the brother-in-law of Bollywood actor Vivek Oberoi, was among the 12 accused against whom the Bengaluru Central Crime Branch (CCB) had filed a suo motu FIR. Aditya (31) is the son of late Jeevaraj Alva, who was the minister in Ramakrishna Hegde Cabinet, and danseuse Nandini Alva. Vivek Oberoi married Aditya Alva's sister Priyanka Alva. Vivek Oberoi made his Kannada debut with Shivarajkumar's Rustum in 2018.

Aditya Alva was among the 12 accused named in the FIR including Ragini Dwivedi, Veeren Khanna, Prashanth Ranka, Shivaprakash, Vaibhav Jain, Loum Pepper, Prashanth Raju, Ashwin, Abhiswami, Rahul Thonshe and Vinay.

A case was registered under sections 21, 21 (C), 27 (A), 27 (B), 29 of the Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances (NDPS) Act and section 120 (B) of IPC against the 12 accused. Several politicians in Karntakta rub their shoulders with the Sandalwood stars and attend high-profile parties. Some politicians even aspire to launch their children in films.

Earlier, Kannada actress Ragini Dwivedi was arrested and taken into custody for her alleged involvement in a drug case. While the CCB was trying to solve the drug case, the NCB in late August, arrested Anikha D and seized MDMA pills from her residence. NCB had allegedly found Ragini Dwivedi's name on her list of contacts in the mobile phone, which was retrieved from Anikha. Later, the CCB had Ragini's friend Ravi Shankar, a RTO official at Jayanagar.

Ragini is currently lodged at the state-run women's home in NIMHANS.

Notably, Kannada filmmaker Indrajit Lankesh, a couple of weeks back, had appeared before the CCB and revealed information about the consumption of drugs in the Kannada film industry.

The Anti-Narcotics Wing of the CCB issued a notice to Lankesh regarding his statements on media channels over the consumption of drugs in the Kannada film industry and asked him to share information. Lankesh had earlier claimed that some budding actors do consume banned substances. He had raised these points, during the course of many interviews given to the media, after the death of a young Kannada actor, Chiranjeevi Sarja.