Bengaluru
Priyanka Alva, wife of Vivek Oberoi, failed to appear before the Central Crime Branch Bengaluru on Friday despite being served a notice to do so. She was told to appear for questioning about the whereabouts of her brother Aditya Alva, one of the prime accused in the Sandalwood drug cases, who has been absconding for weeks.
Priyanka did not even acknowledge the summons. “We need to question Ms Alva as we suspect she is aware of the whereabouts of her brother. She has not honoured the summons to appear on Friday. We will issue summons again,” a senior CCB official said.
The notice was served after the Bengaluru police raided Vivek Oberoi’s Mumbai residence. During the raid, she had refused to part with her phone as the cops questioned if her brother was in touch with her, if so, when was the last time he talked to her and from where. “We had reasons to believe Aditya Alva was in Mumbai. Besides, we wanted to question his relatives there about his whereabouts,” a CCB source said.
The Bengaluru police have been hunting for Aditya for over a month. He disappeared the day an FIR was filed in which he was accused number 6. Apart from Alva, 3 others named in the FIR — Shivaprakash, Vinay Kumar, Prashant Raju and Abhiswamy — are absconding.
Alva came on the radar when the cops arrested RTO staffer BK Ravi Shankar, one of the main drugs suppliers. He reportedly said in his statement parties were held at Alva’s farmhouse where drugs were supplied to revellers. So, the Bengaluru police raided his farmhouse called ‘House of Life’ in Hebbal on the Airport Road.
After the Narcotics Control Bureau arrested 3 people in Bengaluru with a drug haul 2 months ago, Bengaluru cops cracked down on drug traffickers, peddlers and consumers. 15 people have so far been held. Sandalwood actors Ragini Dwivedi and Sanjjanaa Galrani, party organiser Viren Khanna and realtor Rahul Thonse are in custody.
