Two Indian Premier League players were among the 91 persons, including foreigners, who were detained and then let off by the Mumbai Police after medical tests on Monday to determine whether they had consumed any narcotic substances. They were all hauled up at a plush city hotel on Sunday night where the police busted a rave party and seized sizeable quantity of superior quality drugs. The police also seized objectionable photographs of the party.
Vishay Handa, director of the Juhu hotel where the party was organised was arrested. He was booked under the Narcotics Drugs and Psychotropic Substances (NDPS) Act. A local court had remanded him in police custody till May 25.
“Today [Monday] morning we released all those we had detained. We are now awaiting the medical reports,” Vishwas Nangre-Patil, Mumbai Additional Commissioner of Police (Western Region), told The Hindu.
Cricketers Rahul Sharma (India) and Wayne Parnell from South Africa were also among those who were detained. They denied having taken drugs at the hotel. They told reporters that they were not part of the rave party and that they had come for a friend's birthday party. Rahul Sharma said he was in the lobby when the police raided the hotel.
But police sources said both were present at the party. “They were sitting in a corner,” a police officer who was part of the raid, said.
Famous TV actors Shilpa and Apoorva Agnihotri, fashion designer Rocky S, some disc jockeys were also among those arrested.
The police were on the lookout for the drug peddler who supplied the drugs for the party.
Meanwhile, the police have found that the invite to the rave party was created on Facebook. Vishay Handa is the co-creator of the event along with Shoaib Ali and Deepesh Sharma.