Siddhanth Kapoor, Bollywood actor and son of Shakti Kapoor, has dodged time behind bars after having been arrested by the Bengaluru police late on Sunday night. However, News18 has learnt that the celebrity has been let out on bail on a “mere technicality”.
According to sources close to the investigation, there was no initial evidence that showed Siddhanth was in possession of any drugs on his person. Since the actor was not found in possession and there was no evidence to show that he was distributing, he was allowed bail as a “consumer” and not booked as a “peddler”.
Siddhanth was released on station bail on Monday around midnight but was questioned for several hours at the Ulsoor police station on Tuesday.
The police found seven tablets of MDMA, a small amount of the banned drug ecstasy, and five grams of marijuana thrown away near a dustbin.
A police official said that Siddhanth was the disc jockey for this party which was open to the public and as many as 35 guests had come to Bengaluru to attend it.
Acting on a tip-off, the police raided a central Bengaluru star hotel and took all of the attendees into custody.
“A special team has been formed to investigate and track down the people who organised the party, their previous visits, the source of the drugs, and whether the location has been often used for such activities,” said a police source on condition of confidentiality.
A medical test confirmed that Siddhanth along with a few other close friends who the police named as Akhil Soni, Hani Rafiq, Harjyot Singh, and Akhil Kumar tested positive for drugs and were taken into custody. After conducting blood tests on all the 35 attendees, a case was then registered under the Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances (NDPS) Act. Siddhanth underwent a second medical test on Tuesday morning after having spent the night in custody. This was part of the police procedure to ensure the detainees were medically fit.
Siddhanth’s sister Shraddha Kapoor was also questioned in 2020 in relation to a drug case connected to late actor Sushant Singh Rajput.
While stringent conditions are imposed on granting bail if any of the suspects is found in possession of drugs that are of “commercial quantity”, the accused or detained can be given bail if found to have only consumed it. In this case, Siddhanth was found positive for consumption only.
The police team has been scouring through hours of CCTV footage from the hotel to trace the arrival of Siddhanth and his party members, their movements, and also locate the source of the drugs found disposed of near a dustbin that remain “unclaimed” to date.
Explaining that Siddhanth’s had been treated like any other drug-related case, a senior police officer on condition of anonymity said that since this was a “case of consumption”, the accused who were in custody were eligible for station bail.
“We are well aware of how the Mumbai case went and there will be no loose ends in our case. We are conducting a thorough investigation and have found some data and pics related to the event but it is all a part of the investigation,” the official said. “However, we have issued those arrested notices to co-operate in our investigation to trace the peddlers and the source of the narcotic drugs. We have a no-tolerance policy against drugs.”
The police confirmed that the actor who has featured in movies such as Haseena Parkar and Chehre was called in for questioning at 11 am at Halasuru police station on Tuesday that went on till late in the evening.
News18 has learnt that the police’s line of questioning involved getting information on how many such parties Siddhanth has attended, were they ticketed, how were the rooms booked, and who provided the drugs. They have also been exploring possible links to politicians or other celebrities who may have been part of his party earlier, said the source.
The Bengaluru police have been monitoring possible drug rings and the dark web as part of their major crackdown against synthetic drugs and the supply networks in and around the city. According to the statistics available on the drug seizures made by the police department, in the year 2020, they had confiscated 3,912 kg of drugs and another 2,545 kg in 2021 from peddlers and rings operating out of the dark web. These were almost double the amount seized in the year 2019 (1,053 kg) and included drugs like LSD, MDMA, ganja, and cocaine.
In 2020, links to the Kannada film industry and drugs were unearthed by the police, and large quantities of cocaine were also seized during the crackdowns. Two Kannada actresses, Ragini Dwivedi and Sanjjanna Galrani, Bengaluru socialite and party organiser Virendra Khanna, and the son of former minister late Jeevaraj Alva, Aditya, were arrested for their links to drug rings. The cases against Ragini and Sanjana are pending trial. Interestingly, the Karnataka high court quashed proceedings against Khanna for the technical reason that the CCB has taken up cases in a faulty manner.
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