Hospitality bizman held; Ragini visited his flat four times

The owner of a hospitality firm whom Kannada actress Ragini Dwivedi had met nearly four times in the last few months has been arrested in the Sandalwood drugs scandal.

The Central Crime Branch (CCB) arrested Srinivas Subramanian from his apartment in Sahakaranagar, North Bengaluru, on Saturday evening. The raid also yielded around 13 Ecstasy tablets, 100 gram of ganja, 1.1 grams of MDMA and half-gram hashish, said Sandeep Patil, Joint Commissioner of Police (Crime). Subramanian was arrested on the basis of information available during the investigation, he added.

Popularly known as ‘Sri’ in Bengaluru’s party circuit, Subramanian has been hosting party-goers, celebrities and VVIPs, some of whom have already been arrested in the case, another officer said. “It was Ragini who visited his flat in the last few months. We are questioning him whether she took drugs during her visits,” the officer said.

Subramanian runs a hospitality firm and has leased the property of a well-known builder in Sadahalli near Devanahalli, apart from places elsewhere in the city and in Kanakapura. He used to arrange the parties, according to the CCB.

Ragini’s friend and suspended RTO clerk B K Ravi Shankar, who has been arrested in a separate drugs case registered at the Banaswadi police station, is said to have told the police that Subramanian and arrested Malleswaram jeweller Vaibhav Jain were business partners and used to organise parties. Ravi Shankar was among those who attended these parties.

The CCB said Subramanian had been on their radar since Ravi Shankar’s disclosure but that they waited for the “right time” to arrest him.

If CCB sources are to be believed, Subramanian used to take drugs “almost daily” and he justified the indulgence, claiming the narcotics help him concentrate better during meditation.

He is said to have brought the seized drugs from a peddler in Goa during a recent visit.

While Subramanian claimed the drugs were for personal use, the CCB believes the haul seized from his flat indicates a commercial purpose. “We are questioning him to unearth the truth,” the officer added.