Sandalwood drugs case: CCB summons Prashanth Sambargi, asks him to share info

PTI, Sep 11, 2020, 5:37 PM IST

Bengaluru: The Central Crime Branch probing the drug menace in the Kannada film industry and the alleged involvement of other bigwigs, has asked businessman Prashanth Sambargi to appear before it and share the information he has, CCB sources said on Friday.

“Notice issued to Sambargi to appear before CCB to state whatever he knows about the case,” a senior CCB official said.

In his statement to the media recently, Sambargi had alleged that actress Sanjjanaa Galrani, who has been arrested, and Zameer Ahmed Khan (Congress MLA) knew each other well and both had been to an event at a casino in Sri Lanka on June 8, 2019, along with their common acquaintance.

According to sources, police are on the lookout for the acquaintance.

The CCB summoning him comes on a day the Enforcement Directorate has stepped in to investigate the financial aspects of the drug peddling and substance abuse case.

Dismissing the allegation as a lie, Khan has said he had never seen Sanjjanaa Galrani before in Bengaluru, let alone meeting her in Colombo.

Considering it derogatory, Khan had lodged a complaint in a city court against Sambargi, based on which the court directed the police to register a case. Accordingly, a case has been against Sambargi, police sources said.

Meanwhile, the police have arrested two more people in connection with the drugs case, taking the number of arrested to nine.

“Prateek Shetty has been arrested in the Cottonpet case (drug menace in the Kannada film industry). He is a drug peddler supplying drugs,” Bengaluru Joint Commissioner of Police Sandeep Patil said in a statement.

Aditya Agarwal, an associate of high-end party planner Viren Khanna, was arrested from Haryana today, police sources said.

A search warrant was taken yesterday and his house searched, sources said, claiming that he has regular contact with drug peddlers.

The case, reportedly involving bigwigs of the State and those in tinsel town, came to light when the Narcotics Control Bureau arrested three people who were allegedly supplying drugs to those in Kannada film industry.

CCB police investigation into the case has led to several arrests including that of actresses Ragini Dwivedi, Sanjjanaa Galrani and Viren Khanna among others.