New Delhi: The Supreme Court (SC) today granted bail to Kannada actor Ragini Dwivedi, who was arrested in the Sandalwood drug case.

Ragini has been in custody since September and in November, the Karnataka High Court had dismissed her bail plea. But the Apex Court Bench headed by Justice Rohinton F Nariman has set aside the Karnataka HC order.

Keeping aside the order, the SC bench stated that “though petitioner has been found violating certain sections of (Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances) NDPS Act, prima facie if any offence has been made out, it can be said to be made out under Section 27(b) for consumption of certain drugs.”

Advocate Sidharth Luthra, who appeared for the actor, told the Court  that the actor had been in custody for the past 140 days while the co-accused in the case was out on bail. Ragini’s counsel argued that no contraband was seized from her but the “only thing is consumption of less than 0.5 gm of contraband”.

Hearing the counsels, the SC Bench upheld the argument of Ragini’s counsel that no drugs were found from her and that the entire case against her was based on statements.

Ragini has been housed in Parappana Agrahara Jail since September last year.