Drugs (representative image)
It is unclear how the defendants found out about the June 2020 investigation in which they are now implicated.
- News18.com
- Last update: September 10, 2020 4:57 PM IST
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Police investigating the drug syndicate within the Kannada film industry (often labeled ‘Sandalwood’) have told a trial court in Bengaluru that those involved in the drug trade appear to have smelled the fact that the police were chasing them.
In documents presented to the court while seeking custody of actor Ragini Dwivedi, the police recounted conversations on WhatsApp between two of the defendants, conversations in which they show that they are wise with the police investigation into them since June 2020.
The conversation is between Ravishankar, the first person arrested in the case who is also a close associate of Ragini, and Prashanth Ranka, listed as A4 (defendant # 4 out of 12 in the first FIR). The documents show that Ravishankar sent a message to Ranka on June 23, telling him “Don’t talk to the peddlers.”
Of course, these are just chat snippets being sent to the court right now, not the entire conversation.
The chats keep saying “a big follow up is taking place”, and “I found out about the sources yesterday”, ending with a “watch out.”
One of the messages also mentions “Sandeep Patil sir”, the additional police commissioner who heads the branch of crime, as possibly the officer leading the investigation. Although the context of how his name came about is unclear.
It is not clear how the defendants found out two months ago about the investigation in which they are implicated.
There are also other conversations between Ravishankar and Loum Pepper, a Senegalese citizen who was a supplier, asking for “very, very good things” and “2G celebrity stuff.” This was around June 12, about ten days before Ravishankar appeared to have been briefed on the investigation.
Another exchange of messages between Ravishankar and Pepper was in April, when they appeared to have argued over the amount of drugs.
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