Drug racket probe: Sanjjanaa had 9 gadgets, says CCB; this is no evidence, argues her lawyer

BENGALURU:

Actor Sanjjanaa Galrani

, who has been arrested in the high-profile drug-peddling case, will be produced before the special court for

Narcotics Drugs and Psychotropic Substances

(

NDPS

) Act on Friday.

With investigating officers from Central Crime Branch, who arrested Sanjjanna, saying they don’t need her custody any longer as they have finished questioning her, the actor’s judicial custody is likely to be extended. The NDPS court is also taking up Sanjjanaa’s bail petition on Friday.

As in the case of her fellow accused and Sandalwood colleague Ragini Dwivedi, police haven’t recovered drugs from

Sanjjanaa

or her house, which they raided last week.

A remand petition that police had earlier filed seeking Sanjjanaa’s custody read: “We seized a gold-coloured iPhone with sim, red iPhone without sim, black iPhone without sim, a purple Samsung phone without sim, a black A6010 mobile without sim, a black hard disk, a blue

MacBook Air

, a silver coloured iPad and a blue color power bank. Since there were no sim cards in her mobile phones, we need to question her in detail about them.”

Sanjjanaa’s advocate Srinivasa Rao, however, pooh-poohed the police claims. “What makes cops think that not having a sim card in mobile phones is an act of drug peddling? Most mobile users will have a handset without sim at home or office. Are they all drug peddlers,” he asked.

According to Rao, the remand petition is full of such loopholes. “Sanjjanaa was involved in drug peddling along with other accused. With others, she participated in musical and dance parties at five-star hotels, pubs, farmhouses and indulged in drug racket. They used to procure drugs from Goa, Mumbai, Punjab, Andhra Pradesh, Kerala and foreign countries. Suspects would sell the drugs to businessmen, celebrities, actors, disc jockeys, software engineers and others and earned money illegally,” the remand petition read.

Rao countered the allegations, saying: “In the first place, police haven’t found anything from Sanjjanaa or her residence. She was arrested based on hearsay. How will police decide that partygoers indulge in drug peddling? They haven’t shown any drugs recovered from the said parties. So where is the link?”

The petition further said, “We want to know from where and whom she purchased drugs. Her peddlers have taken shelter in other states and we wanted to take her to other places for investigation.” Rao wondered when no drugs have been recovered from Sanjjanaa, how could police say she has consumed them and her peddlers are to be tracked.

Asserting that the FIR itself is weak as it doesn’t mention anything in specific and police haven’t got any material evidence against Sanjjanaa till now, Rao told TOI: “The current investigation being undertaken by Central Crime Branch into the alleged offences under the NDPS Act is nothing, but building castles in the air. Neither does it have any basis, nor substance. The laws of evidence have been thrown to the wind. Liberty and the right to life with dignity have been taken away by police in the garb of investigation into an uncertain offence. Rule of noise wants to takeover the authority of the courts of law to hold trial and pronounce judgment.”

Meanwhile, Sanjjanaa's parents had come to jail but were told that they can't see her as she is in quarantine.