70% of Juhu rave revellers test positive: Cops

When Mumbai police, for the first time, busted a rave party at a high-end Juhu pub on October 6, they faced a lot of flak. The patrons cried foul, their parents went into a state of denial and the media kept its fingers crossed.

However, the cops have had the last laugh. At least 70% of the youngsters rounded up, and later released, have tested positive for drug consumption, said the police. Reports of blood and urine samples of around 100 youngsters were dispatched by the Kalina Forensic Science Laboratory to the Anti-Narcotics Cell (ANC) on Tuesday. The rest would be delivered in batches soon, police added.

The party was organised at Bombay 72 degree on October 6. At least 231 youngsters, 37 of them girls, were rounded up and made to undergo tests at various government hospitals. The very next day, police had said that appropriate action would be taken against those testing positive for drug consumption.

The scientific tests on the suspected drugs, which were collected from the rave party venue, have identified those as LSD, cocaine, Ecstasy, marijuana and hashish, said police. “It is now proved that drugs were present at the party and several of the youngsters were consuming it,” said an ANC official.

Sources said that a grandson of a notorious gangster and a druglord of yesteryear is among those who tested positive for drug consumption. There are also a couple of children of filmstars.

Seven suspected drug peddlers - Rahul Karmarkar, Rajesh Talwar, Salil Roy, Valen Betro, Sameer Shah, Salil Kothari and Kashish Malkani - were arrested from the party venue. DJ Ben Huen Shauy Simon, an Israeli, too was rounded up. They were booked under various sections of NDPS Act for sale, distribution, possession and consumption of drugs.