Filmmaker Indrajit Lankesh claims at least 15 into drug trade in Kannada film industry
Bengaluru: Filmmaker and journalist Indrajit Lankesh on Tuesday claimed that at least 15 people in the Kannada film industry were involved in drug trafficking.
He made the claim a day after deposing before the police to share the information about the alleged drug racket operating in the film industry.
"I have given (names of) around 15 people whom I know are into drug business. I shared those names with the police," Lankesh told PTI.
Lankesh was questioned for nearly five hours by the Central Crime Branch on Monday for his statement that there were many people in the film industry who were into the drug business either as consumers or sellers.
The filmmaker made the statement in the wake of the Narcotics Control Bureau busting a drug trafficking racket here and said some "prominent musicians and actors" in Karnataka were under its scanner. The filmmaker said he wanted to expose the drug use in the industry.
"There are celebrities, when they start smoking and start doing cocaine, they are the brand ambassadors of youth today. These people think it is cool..," he added.
Lankesh said he suspected that some of the parties organised in the 'Sandalwood' were hosted by drug mafias within the industry.
Lankesh did not rule out the possibility of the Mumbai underworld behind the supply of drugs to a section of people in the Kannada film industry.
Meanwhile, the police said they were probing the matter.
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Pakistan reports two more polio cases. Total tally now 52
ISLAMABAD: At least two more cases of poliovirus were reported in Pakistan, taking the number of infections to 52 so far this year, a report said on Friday.
“The Regional Reference Laboratory for Polio Eradication at the National Institute of Health has confirmed the detection of two more wild poliovirus type 1 (WPV1) cases in Pakistan," an official statement said.
The fresh infections — a boy and a girl — were reported from the Dera Ismail Khan district of Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa province.
“Genetic sequencing of the samples collected from the children is underway," the statement read. Dera Ismail Khan, one of the seven polio-endemic districts of southern Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, has reported five polio cases so far this year.
Of the 52 cases in the country this year, 24 are from Balochistan, 13 from Sindh, 13 from Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, and one each from Punjab and Islamabad.
There is no cure for polio. Only multiple doses of the oral polio vaccine and completion of the routine vaccination schedule for all children under the age of five can keep them protected.
