Five detained for rave party, drugs seized in Kodagu

KODAGU/MYSURU: A homestay owner and four youths have been arrested for organising a rave party fuelled by a large amount of drugs in Kodagu’s Napoklu village in the weekend. The all-night rave had just started when a police team led by superintendent of police Suman D Pannekar arrived at the recently opened homestay, Nelaji A-1 Glamping, around 9pm Saturday.
The homestay is 40km from Madikeri. Police seized 205gm ganja and 29gm charas from them.There have been complaints about alleged rave gigs being held in the guise of parties, but this was the first breakthrough, police said.
Rave party: Only those having ganja detained
Of the four youths arrested along with the homestay owner, two are from Mumbai and two from Bengaluru. “They were probably part of an organised network, given the number of revellers at the party. The DJ was from Mumbai and the revellers were different parts of India,” a police officer said.
The owner had taken permission from police to organise the party saying they were celebrating the first anniversary of the homestay. During the raid, sources said, 70-80 revellers were found high on party pills, but only those in possession of ganja were detained.
SP Pannekar told TOI those partying at the homestay were outsiders and majority of them had been invited to the event.
“There was no formal invitation. They might have visited the homestay earlier and contacted the owner. It is a guarded area and permission was given only for an anniversary party,” he said.
The SP said DJ music was played on loudspeakers and drugs were supplied. Around Rs 1.75 lakh in cash was seized from the homestay. Police suspect it was collected from participants towards entry fee and drugs.
Homestays to be watched
Pannekar said the seized drugs were being tested to ascertain if they were grown locally or brought from outside. All homestays will now be watched, the SP said, appealing to people to tip off police about any illegal activities in their neighbourhood.
“They can also drop a letter at any of the 30 suggestion boxes kept across Kodagu district. Suitable reward would be given to those giving accurate information,” the SP said.