Sandalwood drugs racket: Realtor appears before B'lore police

Bengaluru, Sep 12 Realtor turned social activist Prashant Sambargi appeared before Bengaluru's City Crime Branch (CCB) to provide alleged information and evidence he has on the drugs mafia links with Sandalwood actors.

The CCB has so far arrested more than a dozen persons, including Kannada film industry's stars Ragini Dwivedi and Sanjjanaa Galrani.

Prashant has been in the forefront in the fight against drug mafia taking its roots in the Kannada film industry.

After noted film director Indrajit Lankesh first raked up the drugs issue, Prashant started visiting several TV studios, claiming that he was an activist and knew more about drug addiction cases in Sandalwood.

He named Galrani in this connection on TV shows. He also alleged that former Minister and Congress leader BZ Zameer Ahmed Khan had gone to Sri Lanka to take part in a party to which Galrani was also invited.

This had created a lot of buzz in media circles and resulted in Khan filing a police complaint against Prashant on Friday.

Hearing his views aired on the TV, the CCB issued him a notice on Friday to appear before them to "disclose all information and place every piece of evidence" before the authorities to help probe the matter in detail.

Prior to appearing before the CCB, Prashant Sambargi dared Khan to disclose his travel details of June 8, 9 and 10 last year. "My only question to Khan is where was he on June 8, 9 and 10, 2019? Let him answer this question publicaly or else I will disclose in the days to come," he said.

Khan had gone to Colombo on these days, he claimed. "He was a Minister at that time. Why did he go there? What was the purpose of his visit? He must come out clean on this," he asserted.

It may be recalled that Prashant Sambargi came into public limelight when Kannada actress Shruti Hariharan launched a #Metoo campaign in 2018 against noted multi-lingual star Arjun Sarja.

Shruti had even accused and filed a complaint against Prashant of threatening her and trying to harm her reputation. She had also accused him of running a campaign using his media connections to bring disrepute to her.

( With inputs from IANS )