The Central Crime Branch (CCB) of Bengaluru Police arrested Kannada actress Ragini Dwivedi in connection with an ongoing probe of drug menace in the film industry.

Ragini is the third person to be arrested in connection with the Sandalwood Drug Link and the first Kannada actress to be arrested. The CCB on Wednesday had issued a notice to the actress to appear before it for investigations on Thursday, but the actress had sent a team of lawyers who had requested for time till Monday. However, CCB police had raided her residence after obtaining a court warrant on Friday.

Dwivedi, whose family hails from Haryana's Rewari, was born in Bengaluru. She made her Sandalwood debut in the movie Veera Madakari in 2009. She is known for her role in Kannada movies 'Kempe Gowda', 'Ragini IPS', 'Bangari', and 'Shiva'.

She made her Tamil debut in unpopular film 'Ariyaan' directed by P Karthikeyan, but noted in Jayam Ravi and Amala Paul starrer 'Nimirndhu Nil', playing second heroine in the movie. However she got the wrath of Tamil audience after releasing a video in support of the Kannada people during the 2016 Cauvery crisis. She stated "Cauvery is ours. We have no water to drink and why we have to give them (Tamil Nadu) water in this situation." Watch the video here:

#FightforNammaCauvery pic.twitter.com/YS0f25XlyY

— 👑 Ragini Dwivedi 👑 (@raginidwivedi24) September 7, 2016

On the drug case, the CCB intensified its investigation into a drugs haul in Bengaluru after the Narcotics Control Bureau (NCB) arrested three persons from the city, who were allegedly supplying drugs to singers and actors in the Kannada film industry.

The police said they have arrested Ravi, who has close acquaintances in the Kannada film industry, in connection with the drugs case. Filmmaker and journalist Indrajit Lankesh had given his statement to the CCB about drug abuse in Sandalwood. He had also claimed that at least 15 people in the industry were involved in the drug trade.