The cops had earlier arrested businessman Gajjala Vivekanand, the son of a prominent Telangana BJP leader, as the prime accused.
Gajjala Vivekanand (37). (Supplied)
Over the past two days, several prominent names have surfaced in connection with the drug raid by the Cyberabad police at Radisson Blu hotel in the Gachibowli area of Hyderabad on the night of Sunday, 25 January.
These include Tollywood director Radha Krishna Jagarlamudi, popularly known as Krish, and model-cum-YouTuber Kallapu Lishi Ganesha, who was reportedly apprehended two years ago in connection with another drugs case in Hyderabad.
Earlier, the cops booked businessman Gajjala Vivekanand (37), Director of the Manjeera Group of companies, a construction firm based in the Kukatpally area of Hyderabad, as the prime accused for cocaine usage. He is also the son of Yoganand Gajjala, a prominent leader of the Telangana unit of the BJP.
The police said they have arrested four of the accused so far. While the police initially arrested Vivekanand and two others on Monday, the drug peddler Syed Abbas Ali Jeffery was nabbed on Tuesday.
However, the local court rejected Vivekanand’s remand on Tuesday citing traces of cocaine only found in sachets and medical tests.
As per the FIR, which South First accessed, the police have named a total of 10 individuals — eight men and two women — in the case.
They have been identified as Lishi Ganesha, Radha Krishna Jagarlamudi, Kedhar Selagamsetty (movie producer), Nirbhay Sindhi (businessman), Raghu Charan, Sandeep, Swetha, Neil, and Syed Abbas Ali Jeffery (drug peddler), apart from Vivekanand as the prime accused.
Previously, during a pre-dawn drug bust on 3 April, 2022, Lishi Ganesha and her sister Kallapu Kushita were reportedly among the 10 people apprehended by the Hyderabad Task Force at the Pudding & Mink Pub located at the Radisson Blu in Banjara Hills. The sisters are popular YouTubers.
B Jemes Babu, the Station House Officer (SHO) of Gachibowli, told South First, “Lishi, Shweta, Sandeep, and a few others are absconding. We have formed several teams to trace them.”
Madhapur Deputy Commissioner of Police (DCP) Vineeth G said, “According to the tests so far, Vivekanand, Kedhar, and Nirbhay consumed cocaine. Vivekanand said that they had partied several times in the hotel.”
He added that the peddler Syed Abbas, who has been arrested, delivered the banned substance to Vivekanand on at least 10 occasions.
About the other accused, the DCP said, “Charan claims he is in Bengaluru. It is not entirely confirmed if director Krish attended the party. We have just started the investigation. There are likely to be more revelations in the coming days.”
Krish, who was named as the eighth accused in the FIR, admitted that he went to the Radisson Blu hotel but only to meet his friends. “He says he is in Mumbai and claimed that he was there for half an hour that evening and left the hotel at 6:45 pm after meeting Vivekananda, the owner of the hotel,” said the DCP, adding that the director had agreed to cooperate with the investigation.
While clarifying that he had nothing to do with the drug case, Krish also told the police that he spoke to Vivekananda for half an hour as his driver was not present and left the party after the driver arrived.
Meanwhile, Cyberabad Commissionerate’s Commissioner Avinash Mohanty reportedly said, “We won’t spare anyone in the case. Everyone on the list of the accused will be tested. Tests have already confirmed that Vivekanand, Kedhar, and Nirbhay consumed drugs.”
A case has been registered against all the accused under Sections 25, 29, and 27-A of the Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances (NDPS) Act at the Gachibowli Police Station.
The Cyberabad Police received a tip about Vivekanand and his friends engaging in drug use.
In a joint operation with the Special Operations Team (SOT), the Gachibowli police arrived at the hotel around 1 am, and inspected two rooms (1200 and 1204).
There, they reportedly discovered three plastic sachets and a white paper roll — apparently being used for inhaling the drugs.
With the help of the Clues team, they tested the powder inside the sachets and found it to be cocaine. Each packet contained a gram of the substance.
Cocaine, derived from the coca plant, is primarily utilised for recreational purposes and has also been historically used by indigenous South Americans for medicinal reasons.
Investigation with the hotel staff led the police to Vivekanand’s Jubilee Hills residence, where he was promptly arrested around 6 am on Monday.
“During interrogation, Vivekanand revealed that he organised a party for his friends in his hotel room with cocaine,” Gachibowli SHO B Jemes Babu told South First.
Subsequently, Vivekanand underwent a medical examination, confirming a positive test for the powder.
According to the Manjeera Group website, Vivekanand assumed the role of a non-executive and non-independent director on the board of the construction company in 2020.
A graduate in Civil Engineering from Osmania University, Vivekanand holds a postgraduate degree in construction management from the Stevens Institute of Technology in New Jersey in the US.
His father contested as a BJP candidate in the 2018 Serilingampally Assembly constituency elections, but ranked behind the TRS’ (now BRS) Arekapudi Gandhi and the TDP’s V Ananda Prasad.
Yoganand also holds the position of chairman and managing director of Manjeera Constructions Limited.
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