Goregaon drug deaths: Supplier held, larger racket suspected

The accused, Ulhasnagar resident Vineet Sunil Gerelani, was present at the venue during the concert, along with two other suspected suppliers who are currently absconding, police officers familiar with the matter said

MUMBAI: The Vanrai police have arrested a 22-year-old man who allegedly supplied drugs to several attendees of the ‘999999999’ music concert held at the NESCO Exhibition Centre in Goregaon on April 11, taking the total number of arrests in connection with the death of two MBA students attending the concert due to suspected drug overdose to seven.

All seven accused arrested in the case were produced before the Metropolitan Magistrate Court in Borivali on Thursday and remanded in police custody till April 18 (Satish Bate/ HT Photo)

The accused, Ulhasnagar resident Vineet Sunil Gerelani, was present at the venue during the concert, along with two other suspected suppliers who are currently absconding, police officers familiar with the matter said. The three alleged suppliers and other arrested accused, including some students, were regular visitors at the venue and may be part of a larger drug supply racket at events where youngsters gather in large numbers, the officers noted.

As reported by HT earlier, several students from the Jamnalal Bajaj Institute of Management Studies (JBIMS) attended the concert at the NESCO centre on April 11 in disparate groups. Among them, two students – Shreya Rai and Sheetal Salvi – complained of difficulty in breathing and collapsed at the venue reportedly after consuming Ecstasy pills. While both were rushed to the trauma care hospital in Jogeshwari, their college mate Bismat Singh Bhasin too was hospitalised after he complained of dizziness and convulsions in the limbs.

The Vanrai police arrested five persons after the incident, including three JBIMS students, an event staff and an official from the NESCO Centre. On Tuesday, alleged drug peddler Anand Patel who is suspected to have delivered Ecstasy pills to students at the venue was arrested, while the seventh suspect, Gerelani, was detained for questioning on Wednesday and arrested later at night.

The accused had allegedly created a WhatsApp group for drug transactions pertaining to the April 11 concert, which was deleted later, hampering the probe. Investigators said they had recovered messages from Gerelani’s mobile phone indicating he distributed drugs in large quantities via Snapchat and received the payments in his bank account. His call records also showed that he was in touch with two other alleged suppliers who are absconding, and to whom he had transferred money in the past, immediately after the sale of drugs.

“We suspect that a larger drug supply racket may be active at such events as location data shows that some of the accused, including those absconding, had attended previous events at the NESCO centre,” an officer said, requesting anonymity.

Elaborating on the matter, the officer said that alleged drug peddler Anand Patel and JBIMS student Pratik Pandey, who have been arrested, had procured drugs on multiple occasions from the two absconding accused, Ayush Sahitya and Shub Agarwal. Both Patel and Pandey as well as Raunak Khandelwal, another JBIMS student arrested in the case, also stayed in contact with the absconders regularly, the officer said.

Investigators have also found that Pandey and the deceased Shreya Rai had attended an earlier event at the same venue where they allegedly consumed Ecstasy, suggesting drugs may have circulated at past events as well.

All seven accused arrested in the case were produced before the Metropolitan Magistrate Court in Borivali on Thursday and remanded in police custody till April 18. NESCO has denied any negligence on its or its employees’ part, and said it was fully cooperating with the authorities.