Kannada TV serial actors quizzed in drugs case

The Internal Security Division (ISD), which is investigating a separate narcotics case, questioned two Kannada serial actors at its Shanthinagar office on Tuesday.

The actors were Abhishek Das, who acts in a serial Gattimela, and Geetha Bharathi Bhat, who plays the lead role in the serial Brahmagantu.

A senior officer said police will serve notices on many other actors who are suspects and they will be questioned. Police have already quizzed Sandalwood actor Yogesh alias ‘Loose Mada’, cricketer N C Aiyappa, a private firm employee who earlier worked in a news channel, serial actress Rashmi Changappa and a few others.

The actors are questioned by information given by two drug peddlers caught near Peenya, North Bengaluru, on September 16.

Speaking to reporters, Das said he received a notice on a phone call on Monday evening. He said the notice had been served based on the call detail record of the arrested drug peddlers. Insisting that he had nothing to do with the drug business, Das said he had shared the information he had got. Officials might question more serial actors, he added.

Bhat said: “I’ve been called to check if I had attended parties organised by the peddlers. I’ve answered their questions and have no connections with the peddlers. I’m ready to share the information I have with the officials any time.”

While Yogesh rejected reports that he was questioned by ISD officials and was at their office to meet his father’s friend, he took a U-turn a day later by calling a press conference on Tuesday and admitting that he was indeed been quizzed. Yogesh met the press a few hours after his parents gave their reaction to the regional news channels.

“Officials didn’t bring up the names of actors Ragini Dwivedi, Diganth Manchale or Aindrita Ray, but they only asked about me,” Yogesh said. “I had a habit of smoking and consuming liquor but not drugs.”

Yogesh said he went to Sri Lanka during the Raj Cup cricket tournament and had returned after losing. “In 2018, my passport validity expired, and I hadn’t renewed it,” he added.

The ISD joined the drugs probe after arresting two suspected peddlers in Peenya.

Bhaskar Rao, Additional Director General of Police, ISD, said their focus wasn’t on consumers. “The supply of drugs is rampant across the city. There is no point catching only consumers. Our target is someone beyond these people who are supplying drugs,” he told DH.