Siddaramaiah seeks judicial probe into Sandalwood drugs racket

Bengaluru: Senior Congress leader Siddaramaiah on Thursday said a judicial commission should be constituted to probe into the drug peddling and substance abuse case, as he alleged that police are functioning like "puppets" in the hands of the Karnataka government.

"I enquired with the police why few people (named in the FIR) have not been arrested, police said they were absconding and are being traced....

there may be pressure from the government also (on police), it cannot be ruled out," Siddaramaiah said in response to a question about accused number one and six in the case still not being arrested. He said the police aren't weak, but are functioning like 'puppets' in the hands of the government and are working as per its instructions. Alleging that the ruling party was misusing power and police, the Leader of Opposition in the assembly said, ".. let a judicial commission be constituted to inquire into it, by a sitting judge."

CCB police investigation into the drugs case has led to several arrests so far including actresses Ragini Dwivedi, Sanjjanaa Galrani, and high-end party planner Viren Khanna among others.

However, prime accused Shiva Prakash, a Kannada film producer and another accused, Aditya Alva, son of former minister Late Jeevaral Alva and also the brother-in-law of Bollywood actor Vivek Oberoi, are still at large.

Meanwhile, JD(S) leader and former Chief Minister H D Kumaraswamy said the investigation into the drug case will slip into "cold storage" if the police fail to go after those who have invested in dance bars and microbreweries in Bengaluru.

"... those behind dance bars, high-end night activities or parties, microbreweries the source of drugs is there...

there should be an investigation about people who invest in them. By not doing that if the investigation is limited to two or three people whoever they have caught and peddlers, after 15 days, in my opinion, it will go to cold storage," he said.