Christmas rave party busted near Delhi; 50 held

Seven people have been arrested after anti-narcotics sleuths and Haryana police busted a suspected Christmas-eve rave party being held at a farmhouse in Mewat district on the outskirts of Delhi.

Assistant Superintendent of Police (Mewat) Deepak Gehlawat told PTI that while close to 50 people have been detained after night-long raids, seven have been arrested under the provisions of the Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances (NDPS) Act.

Earlier, officials from the Delhi zone of the Narcotics Control Bureau (NCB) and Gurgaon police swooped down at the event location on the border of Gurgaon and Mewat on the intervening night of December 24-25 and seized a variety of party drugs, stimulant narcotics and liquor bottles from the spot.

The farmhouse where the party was being held is about 50 km from Delhi border.

"The operation was conducted after getting specific intelligence that a rave party is being held here. We contacted Gurgaon police and the operation was conducted jointly," NCB Zonal Director (Delhi) Rohit Sharma said.

The case was then transferred to Mewat police as the venue of the said party was found to be in village Bisar under the Tauru police station area of the said district.

Gehlawat said blood samples of all those detained, including a 46-year-old Swiss national, are being examined.

"About 50 people, including four girls have been detained by the raiding teams. Majority of those detained are under 30 years and they have been found to have been working in BPOs, even management companies and some are also students in institutions in Delhi and NCR region," a senior NCB officer said.

The raid was executed after the NCB received a tip-off about the party and the agency subsequently communicated it to Gurgaon Police after which the operation was launched with a team of about 35 officials fanning all around the half-built farmhouse, located about 8kms

along a 'kuccha track' off the Manesar main road.

Piles of bags, sachets and polythene bags resembling those which contain medicines were seen lying around the venue after the operation.

Preliminary investigations suggested that the invite for this illegal drugs abuse party was being circulated on social media platforms like Facebook and Whatsapp and an entry fee of Rs 1,000 was being charged by the organisers of the event.

A Whatsapp message intercepted by the NCB and police authorities and circulated by the alleged organisers read "Sonik Scizzor (Dark Prisma Records) Ritual Begins: 00:00 into the woods....Love and Party."

Gehlawat said four girls, who were detained after the raid, had expressed ignorance about the rave party invite as they said they were part of the decoration team for the event.

"One person suspected to be the organiser has been detained by the police and is being questioned by Mewat police," a senior NCB officer said.

The suspected party drugs that have been recovered from the spot include 'performance enhancing' narcotics like crystal meth, 'Charas', LSD, 'Hashish', 'Ganja' and fine quality Cocaine, abused widely in such parties.

"The samples of drugs have also been sent to the laboratory for purity check tests. All the seven arrested have been booked on the basis of their possessing the banned drugs and not consumption," the NCB officer said.

The raiding teams also found that liquor was being served at the venue without an excise permit for the same.

Gehlawat said the arrested persons would be produced in a court in Mewat soon.

"Further probe is on and exact charges will be pressed on those detained after the results of blood samples are obtained and the drugs are tested for their purity," the NCB officer added.

Photograph: PTI Photo