On Monday (September 28, 2020), The Karnataka High Court dismissed the petition which was filed by Geetha Misra through advocate GR Mohan. The petition was filed in order to transfer the high-profile drug racket case involving actress Ragini Dwivedi and Sanjjana Galrani to the National Investigating Agency (NIA).
Both the actresses were taken in custody for allegedly consuming and supplying banned narcotic substances at parties and events that they used to organize. The actresses along with others were charged under various sections of the IPC and the Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances Act of 1985.
The petition was heard by a bench of two justices: Justice Abhay Oka and Justice Ashok S Kinagi. They said, “At this stage, it is not proper for this court to go into the question whether, for investigation of the said offense, NIA can be appointed.”
The Court had also observed that the FIR was registered just a few days ago and therefore, it cannot be concluded that the investigation is not being carried out efficiently.
The Additional Chief Secretary of the Home Department was also been given a representation, the petitioner stated. It was said that various road accidents have occurred from 2017 involving people from high society who were under the influence of drugs.
The bench took into consideration that the First Information Report (FIR) was filed at Cottonpet Police Station on 4th September. The court said that they were relying on various incidents that took place from 2017 to 2019. Also, it had not been stated whether in relation to all the cases whether the FIR was registered or whether the investigation was complete or not, and due to this, a writ of mandamus cannot be issued. The court also specified that the petition will have to be very specific about specific cases where a proper investigation is not carried out.
The petition which asked the court to appoint a Special Investigation Team (SIT) to probe the drug racket in the state and especially the city of Bangalore was rejected by the court. The Court had declined to appoint an SIT to probe the case and said that
"A sweeping prayer is made to appoint SIT to generally investigate the illegal drug racket in Karnataka. At highest, an SIT can be appointed to investigate a specific offense. Generally, for an investigation into the alleged drug racket in Karnataka or Bengaluru, SIT cannot be appointed."
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