Sandalwood drugs case: Charge sheet to be presented before month-end

The Central Crime Branch is gearing up to file a charge sheet in the high-profile drug racket case linked to Sandalwood.

A senior officer said the charge sheet is being readied and it may be submitted by the month-end before the special court under the Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances (NDPS) Act. Officials have 180 days to file the charge sheet in the case.

The case has been registered in the Cottonpet police station against 20 people who stand accused till date.

Fourteen of them have been arrested so far, including Sanjjanaa Galrani, Ragini Dwivedi, Viren Khanna, Loum Pepper Samba alias Simon, Benald Udena, Rahul Thonse and Ravi Shankar, while around six accused, including Aditya Alva, Prashanth Raju, Abhiswamy and Messy, are at large.

Police have issued lookout notices against the absconders and all efforts are on to nab them.

The CCB has taken up the case registered in the Cottonpet police station on September 4 based on the complaint filed by Assistant Commissioner of Police Gautham and investigated it for more than two months. The investigating officers have collected technical and manual evidence (friends and partygoers' statements).

They will first submit the preliminary charge sheet and will further present the additional charge sheet.

"We are going to make a detailed mention of the involvement of the accused persons and the role of those still at large," a senior officer said.

Officials have interrogated a few actors, including Aindrita Ray and Diganth, fashion show organiser Ramesh Dembla, party worker Karthik Raj, gangster Muthappa Rai's son Ricky Rai, producer Soundarya Jagadeesh and others.

All their statements will be submitted before the court in the charge sheet, the officer added.