The Hyderabad police busted a late-night party at a pub in the upscale Banjara Hills and detained around 150 persons, including former Union minister K Chiranjeevi’s niece, officials said on Sunday. Narcotics, including heroine and cocaine, was also seized from the site, police said.
More than 150 persons, including 39 women, were detained, and some of them were let off after questioning. Later in the afternoon, the police released a list of 142 persons, including 19 staff members of the pub. The list included popular film Chiranjeevi’s niece Niharika Konidela, winner of the Telugu version of Bigg Boss and popular Tollywood singer Rahul Sipligunj, Telugu Desam Party (TDP) parliament member Jayadev Galla’s son Siddharth Galla.
Hyderabad police commissioner C V Anand issued orders suspending Banjara Hills inspector Shiva Chandra and issued a charge memo to assistant commissioner of police M Sudarshan for their alleged negligence in controlling narcotics in pubs and bars.
A late evening statement by the Hyderabad police revealed that the task force police, along with the Banjara Hills police, raided the Pudding & Mink pub in Radisson Hotel at around 2 am and found more than 100 persons consuming liquor in the pub.
“On thorough checking of the premises, five small packets containing white powder suspected to be cocaine were found in one of the plastic containers used for holding drink straws present on the bar counter,” the statement said.
{{/usCountry}}“On thorough checking of the premises, five small packets containing white powder suspected to be cocaine were found in one of the plastic containers used for holding drink straws present on the bar counter,” the statement said.
{{/usCountry}}The police said they had arrested two persons – pub manager Mahadaram Anil Kumar and his partner Abishek Vuppala in connection with the incident. Another partner Arjun Veeramachineni is absconding.
The statement said the pub allowed only elite and select few customers and their guests with the sole intention of earning money. “They are running the pub till 4 am. A mobile application is being maintained wherein a code is generated for each customer, and the customers can have access to the pub only by entering the code at the main entrance,” police said.
The police booked a case under sections 8(c), 22(b) and 29(1) of the Narcotics Drugs and Psychotropic Substances (NDPS) Act at Banjara Hills police station. “The Jubilee Hills police are investigating the case,” the statement said.
A senior task force police official said the pub, which was supposed to close down by 11 pm, was running beyond the stipulated hours, and a large number of men and women were partying at the pub when the raid was conducted.
Some of the youngsters, who were allegedly consuming narcotics, threw the packets on seeing the police, who immediately seized them. The samples were later sent to the Forensic Science Laboratory.
“All the participants in the party, children of several high-profile people, besides the hotel staff, were shifted to Banjara Hills police station. Some of them were let off after questioning,” the official said.
Niharika’s father Nagababu Konidela, younger brother of Chiranjeevi, issued a statement stating that his daughter was cleared by the police. Admitting that she was present at the event, he said the police had taken action against the pub as it was running beyond permitted hours.
“As per the information shared by the police, they said Niharika has done nothing wrong. Our conscience is very clear,” Nagababu said, in a video clip released to the media.
There were reports that the pub was owned by Tejaswini Chowdary, daughter of former Congress MP Renuka Chowdary. But she clarified that her daughter was in no way connected with the pub, nor was she present at the event.
Meanwhile, singer Rahul Sipligunj said he had gone to the pub for a friend’s birthday party. “It is not our fault that the pub was running beyond stipulated hours. I was not aware of the usage of drugs by some people there. Before I left the party, the police came there and detained us,” he said.