Sandalwood drugs case: Chef’s call to friend leads to Aditya Alva’s arrest

Bengaluru: It was a Nepalese chef who cooked the high-profile Sandalwood drug accused Aditya Alva’s goose.

When Aditya, the brother-in-law of Bollywood actor Vivek Oberoi, realised that his arrest was imminent after an FIR was filed against him by the Central Crime Branch of the Bengaluru police, the accused scooted from Bengaluru to Hyderabad taking along with him Rs 5 lakh in cash and his favourite chef Mahesh Thapa.

Mahesh was one of the chefs working in Aditya’s sprawling ‘House of Life’ farmhouse in Hebbal on the outskirts of Bengaluru. The two went by car to Hyderabad and stayed in a hotel initially and later kept shifting to service apartments.

From Hyderabad they went by road to Chennai and stayed in various service apartments. By October end they shifted to a homestay in Chennai, media reports said quoting sources in the CCB.

Aditya had left behind his phone in Bengaluru and had asked his chef also to do the same. But Mahesh got home sick and wanted to contact his family in Nepal. When Aditya did not allow him to do so, he contacted his colleagues at the farmhouse and asked them to convey a message to his family.

The police were keeping a close watch on all calls at the farmhouse. They suspected that Mahesh must be with Aditya as he was the only employee missing after the accused had vanished.

When the call finally came, the police traced the location to the homestay in Chennai and caught Aditya.

Aditya had been on the run for over four months which ended Monday.

Aditya has been accused of providing his farmhouse for lavish parties where celebrities and drugs reportedly flowed freely.

While he provided an ideal venue hidden from the eyes of the police, it was high profile Viren Khanna who allegedly hosted the late-night parties.

Initially the police had suspected that Aditya must have fled to Mumbai and had searched the house of Vivek Oberoi. Subsequently the police summoned Priyanka, Aditya’s sister, but she failed to acknowledge the summons and did not appear before the CCB.

Aditya is among the 17 people booked in the case in which actors Ragini Dwivedi and Sanjjanaa Galrani were arrested.

He is the son of former Janata Party minister the late Jeevraj Alva.