Hyderabad police busted a ‘rave party’ at a pub in Banjara Hills in the pre-dawn hours on Sunday and detained nearly 150 people, some of whom were found consuming drugs
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Hyderabad police busted a ‘rave party’ at a pub in Banjara Hills in the pre-dawn hours on Sunday and detained nearly 150 people, some of whom were found consuming drugs.
The detained included actress and actor Naga Babu’s daughter Niharika Konidela, TDP MP Jayadev Galla’s son Galla Siddharth and Tollywood singer and Bigg Boss Telugu winner Rahul Sipligunj. However, the police allowed them to leave after collecting their details, according to a report by the New Indian Express.
The report notes that five grams of cocaine was seized from the spot, while it’s alleged that weed also made rounds on the party floor. The NDPS Act notifies 2 grams as ‘small quantity’.
Let’s take a look at the Hyderabad rave party case and other such instances when celebrities were involved with drug busts:
What happened at Hyderabad rave party
The Hyderabad police task force raided a pub after receiving a tip about the increased number of cars arriving at the hotel after 1 am every night.
The raid at the pub named Pudding & Mink was led by the Task Force Officer on Special Duty P Radha Kishan Rao and Inspector (north zone) K Nageswar Rao at around 2 am.
As per a report by The Hindu, upon seeing the personnel some youngsters threw away their packets, while some flushed them in the toilet.
“But, five packets containing cocaine (one gram per packet)and several empty packets were recovered from the pub, which is reportedly owned by the daughter of a former MP from erstwhile Khammam district,” a senior official told The Hindu.
Test reports confirmed that the powder seized from the pub was cocaine. City police collected clove powder, herbal powder, table salts believed to be used to mask the cocaine supplied to consumers.
In the month-long recce of the pub, the officers found that relatives of elite people from Telangana and Andhra Pradesh were visiting the place to party post-midnight.
According to the New Indian Express report, the pub management allowed entry only to elite and select customers.
An app was also used wherein a code is generated for each customer who is then allowed to enter only after showing the code.
Other drug busts involving celebrities
Last year in October, the Narcotics Control Bureau (NCB) arrested three persons, including actor Shah Rukh Khan’s son Aryan Khan, over a drug seizure on a cruise ship off Mumbai coast.
Khan was granted bail by the Bombay High Court on October 28.
The High Court had imposed 14 bail conditions on him and his co-accused in the case, Arbaaz Merchant and Munmun Dhamecha, who were also granted bail.
In the last two years, since the death of actor Sushant Singh Rajput, NCB has aggressively probed the connection between Bollywood and drugs, showcasing the dark underbelly of tinsel town.
Among the first celebrities to be held with drugs was Sanjay Dutt. Even before the 1993 bomb blast case, Dutt spent five months in jail in 1982 after he was caught in the possession of illegal substances.
In August, 2021, actor Armaan Kohli was arrested by the NCB for allegedly possessing 1.5gm of cocaine.
After Sushant Singh Rajput’s death, actor Rhea Chakraborty was arrested and later granted bail in the alleged drug case.
In November 2020, the NCB also arrested comedian Bharti Singh and her husband Haarsh Limbachiyaa and seized drugs from their house in Mumbai. The NCB had searched the couple’s office and house and recovered 86.5 gram of cannabis from both the places.
In 2014, actor Mamta Kulkarni and husband Vicky Goswami were arrested for alleged drug trafficking in Kenya.
In June 2006, son of late BJP leader Pramod Mahajan, Rahul Mahajan, was held for drug abuse.
Actor Vijay Raaz was reportedly detained by the Abu Dhabi police for alleged possession of narcotics.
In 2001, actor Fardeen Khan was reportedly caught buying a small quantity of cocaine.
With inputs from agencies
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