Bengaluru: Drug probe heats up; cops swoop down on pubs

Bengaluru: Sleuths of the Central Crime Branch (CCB) on Saturday conducted a raid on many prestigious pubs late night as part of their investigation into the Sandalwood drugs case. According to police reports, CCB police raided five of the city's prestigious bars and pubs Saturday late night.

"The CCB team headed by DCP Ravikumar has conducted a raid in five places including Cloud Nine, Sky Bar, Sterling Mac Hotel, UB City and another pub in Bengaluru city" says police sources.

The officers have raided and searched the place over suspicion of illegal activities and fraudulent means that attracted customers to these pubs. It is alleged that the authorities got a search warrant from the court for conducting these raids.

Joint Commissioner of Police, Crime, Sandeep Patil, said, "In the drugs case investigation, we found that generally drugs are taken in some pubs. So, a search warrant was obtained and 5 pubs were searched on Sunday night."

The searches were in connection with an ongoing probe into the usage of drugs in the Kannada film industry, said Sandeep Patil.

Earlier, Kannada actor Ragini Dwivedi was arrested for her alleged involvement in a drug case. The case was initiated a few weeks ago on the basis of a complaint by Kannada filmmaker Indrajit Lankesh registered with the CCB. Lankesh had earlier claimed that some budding actors consumed banned substances.

Medical Education Minister Dr K Sudhakarthat had said that celebrities are ambassadors of art and culture and if they fall prey to such vices, it will mislead the people who look up to them.