Mumbai High

MUMBAI: Sahil Zaroo, scion of one of Srinagar’s richest families and a final year BA (economics) student of St Xavier College, had come to Mumbai from Srinagar after finishing his schooling and stayed with his family at Commonwealth building, Nariman Point.

Zaroo, whose nickname was Badshah, is the only son of his parents. He has an elder sister. He also has a first cousin who was three years his senior at Xavier’s and was close to him and is now pursuing post-graduate studies in Britain.

The Zaroo family deals in Kashmiri handicrafts and has showrooms in different places, including in Mumbai and abroad. It owns a palatial house — 6 Lake Castle — at Nageen, on the banks of the Nageen Lake.

Sahil Zaroo was not good at his studies. He just scraped through his second year examination. While still in college, he started an event management business with three partners. He was known to organise big parties for clubs, which would attract the swish set.  

The club owners would pay him a commission, usually Rs1-1.5 lakh. The last party he organised was on New Year’s Eve in Phoenix Mills compound, Lower Parel, which has three clubs in close vicinity.

“We used to call him party boy,” said Sunaina Bhattacharya*, a senior from college. “He would drive around in his Chevrolet Optra and spend most of his time at nearby coffee shops chatting up friends and whiling away time.”

She said Zaroo’s cousin was always telling him to study and change his ways, but after he left for the UK other friends would always want to party with him because of his contacts. “He had contacts with the managers and bouncers of the most happening clubs,” said Bhattacharya, who now works for a television production house. “If we wanted to enter a club for a night out, Sahil would put us on his guest list as Sahil + 10. Just taking his name at the entrance would be enough to let us in without paying cover charges.” Bhattacharya said Zaroo’s friends were always amazed how he got them into the best parties free. He always carried a lot of money but never had to spend it to enter a club.

Zaroo’s family business of Kashmiri carpets and shahtoosh shawls never interested him, said friends, though he used to help his father at the family’s outlets at a five-star hotel in south Mumbai and another in Juhu. Police raided one of these outlets earlier this year and detained Zaroo for a day. “It was a life-changing experience for me,” Bhattacharya recalled him saying after spending a night in the lock-up.

“Sahil always wanted to make a quick buck,” said Harpal Singh*, who runs his own business in the suburbs. “During the Malhar (St Xavier’s annual cultural festival) of 2004 I had caught him selling entry tickets outside the college. The tickets were not for sale and students looking after the security arrangements had thrashed him.”

Another close friend said, “Sahil did not have a cocaine habit though he smoked marijuana and hashish on a few occasions with me. He said he was a teetotaller, but I have caught him with his drink spiked at many parties. He smoked quite a bit.”

According to others who were close to Zaroo, he would often boast of his contacts in Mumbai’s social circuit and was often seen with various “female friends”, many of them small-time models or aspiring film actresses. “I met him last at Red Light (a nightclub in south Mumbai),” says Rishi Malhotra*, who knew Zaroo. “He was out partying with friends and his examinations were on. He told me that he had started studying seriously and would definitely get his degree.”

Meanwhile, back in Srinagar, the Zaroo family has gone into a shell. The mood at 6 Lake Castle was sombre. Servants and some relatives were seen, but nobody was ready to share any details. “Sahil is a young boy,” said Javeed Ahmad, his uncle. “We do not know what happened.”

Zaroo’s lawyer in Srinagar, Mohammad Aslam Goni, told reporters that Zaroo did not know Mahajan but only Moitra. “Whatever happened in Delhi is a case of drug overdose,” he said. “Sahil did not drink and he accidentally tasted the powder and later fell unconscious.”

Asked why he fled from Delhi, Goni, a former advocate general of Jammu and Kashmir, said his client was terrified.

* Note: Some names have been changed to protect identities

With Ishfaq-ul-Hassan in Srinagar

According to Zaroo’s friends, he used to frequent different clubs on different days of the week:

Mondays: Not Just Jazz By The Bay
Thursdays: Olive Bar and Kitchen
Fridays: Insomnia/Red Light
Saturdays: Insomnia/Red Light
Sundays: Not Just Jazz By The Bay