After getting a tip from reliable sources, Bengaluru Central Crime Branch(CCB) raided Bollywood actor Vivek Oberoi’s house on Thursday. The CCB was hoping to find Aditya Alva, one of the main accused in the Sandalwood drug case, at Vivek’s residence.
Alva, son of former minister late Jeevaraj Alva and brother-in-law of Vivek Oberoi, has been absconding since September 4 when the police located drug peddlers, suppliers and rave party organisers connected to the sandalwood industry. Along with Alva, prime accused Shivaprakash Chuppi and Sheik Faazil have also been absconding.
Joint Commissioner of Police (Crime) Sandip Patil said: “We have received information that Alva is in Vivek Oberoi’s house, so we wanted to check. We have obtained a court warrant and the CCB team has gone to his house in Mumbai. The search is still going on.”
As of now, over 15 people have been arrested in the Sandalwood drug racket. Kannada film actress Ragini Dwivedi, Sanjjanaa Galrani, rave party organiser Viren Khanna, realtor Rahul Thonse and a few Nigerains are among the people arrested.
Ragini and Sanjjanaa are currently under judicial custody in Parappana Agrahara Central Prison in the city. Ragini was arrested by the CCB police on September 4 while Sanjannaa was arrested on September 8.
The information related to the sandalwood drug racket was first exposed by Kannada filmmaker and journalist Indrajit Lankesh earlier this year.
NCB had conducted many back to back raids before handing over the case to the CCB.
