Police, excise dept bust party serving illegal liquor, drugs

The raid was carried out Saturday night in coordination with police following a tip-off, and besides several bottles of alcohol, a number of narcotic substances, including cocaine, were also found at the spot.

Around 90 smuggled liquor bottles, 38 pills of unidentified narcotic drugs and ₹5.43 lakh cash were seized from a party in south Delhi’s Chhatarpur, said police on Sunday.

Around 800 people, mostly juveniles, had attended the party and served liqour and drugs, said the excise department. (Sourced)

In a joint raid by the Delhi excise department and Delhi Police, eight persons were arrested in the case.

Around 800 people, mostly juveniles, had attended the party and served liqour and drugs, said the excise department. According to the FIR, the field testing kit revealed some of the drugs seized to be charas (hashish) and morphine (a regulated pain relieving drug).

Additional deputy commissioner of police (south) Parvinder Singh said the “rave party” was organised in a party hall in the sprawling Dhan Mill (rice mill) compound in Chhatarpur.

“Liquor and drug pills were seized from the venue and so too were two SUVs, including one that belonged to a man named Gaurav Mavi, one of the two main organisers of the party. Ali Chitle was the other organiser. Both are into real estate business and are absconding. They had organised the party for their clients in Delhi-NCR as part of their sale promotion,” said Singh. “We have sent the seized drug pills to the forensic lab to ascertain the kind of narcotic item they are. One of the two seized drugs appeared to be cocaine.”

A case under the relevant sections of the excise act and narcotic drugs and psychotropic substance act (NDPS) was registered at the Mehrauli police station. Police said the party organisers were booked for selling smuggled liquor and drugs.

During the investigation, it was found that the organisers charged ₹500 per unit from the guests for the liquor served, said the additional DCP.

Police said that they will now question the owner of the Dhan Mill compound.

“We will question him to know if he was aware of the rave party and that he had rented out the premises for similar illegal activities,” said a police officer. “We have learnt that the planning for this party was going on for almost 20 days. The invitation card was circulated on closed social media groups. As many as 200 guests had physically received invitation cards.”

A senior excise official said that the joint raid was carried out following a tip-off about alleged violation of excise liquor’s licence at a party hall in Chhatarpur. They had sent in a decoy customer to the party before moving in to raid it.

Among the persons arrested was Faridabad resident Pulkit Rastogi, who had a permit-10 licence (which allows for 30-40 people and serve alcohol in his house) to organise the party and serve limited liquor, said an excise official.

“Our records showed that Rastogi had a valid licence but the number of people as well as quantity of liquor at the party was far more than what it permitted. He also sold the liquor whereas the licence permitted only serving it. Rastogi was arrested along with the cashier and driver of the SUV and another car in which more alcohol bottles, again in violation of licence terms, were found,” a senior police officer said. The officer did not specify the number of bottles on the licence.

Apart from Rastogi, the other arrested persons are the employees of the two organisers, the police added