'IT WAS A SCENE FROM HARE RAMA HARE KRISHNA'

The Mumbai police's Anti-Narcotics Cell raided a rave party at
Gorai, in the early hours of Sunday. The team rounded up more than
90 revellers present. Of them, 13 who were found in possession of
drugs, were on Monday remanded in police custody till September 29.

In an interview, former encounter specialist sub-inspector Kedar
Pawar, who got the tip-off that led to the raid, spoke about how the
crackdown took place.

The slightly-balding 6-foot-tall inspector, who is in his late-30s,
spent over five hours at the party with a woman colleague to observe
the goings-on so that they could nail the offenders later in court.

I was the first to receive a tip-off about the rave party at Gorai
from a source, who referred me to a website -- Om Shivam Sai. My
colleagues from the Anti-Narcotics Cell were certain that raiding it
would be worthwhile because we were sure drugs would be freely
available there.

The raid was given the go-ahead by my senior, Deputy Commissioner of
Police Dilip Srirao. A team was put in place to nab the offenders.

Dressed in jeans and a T-shirt, I walked into a bungalow in Uttan
village, which had a shamiana (tent) on the lawn, a little before
midnight. I was accompanied by my female colleague. We both paid Rs
500 to enter the rave.

My role was to watch the revellers closely so that we could later
build a watertight case against them in court. So I stayed at the
party for over five hours with my colleague, pretending to be under
the influence of drugs.

What I saw was stunning. My first impression was that I had walked
into the set of the title song from the movie Hare Rama Hare
Krishna. There were over 90 people, mostly boys and around six
girls; all were high on drugs.

I saw girls meticulously removing tobacco from cigarettes and
pressing some charas (hand-made hashish, which is derived from
marijuana) into it, which cost Rs 100 a goli (literally small ball,
which is how the drug is sold). The drug is also known as Kali on
the party circuit because of its colour.

A drop of LSD (Lysergic Acid Diethylamide, a hallucinogenic drug) on
the wrist cost Rs 500.

I also saw people consuming the drug using blotting paper, placed on
their tongue.

Half-an-hour into the party, I noticed that one [Name redacted] was
busy pushing the drugs and collecting money. We later identified two
others as [Name redacted] and [Name redacted].

Almost all revellers were dancing on the lawn to trance music, spun
by a professional DJ.

All this while, I was also in touch with the team, who positioned
themselves a little distance away.

I decided to strike when the party was at its height, around 1 am.
The ploy worked -- almost all revellers and traffickers were in for
a shock when policemen barged into the bungalow and declared that
everyone was under arrest.

On searching their mobiles, we found that everyone had received a
text message giving details of the rave on Sunday morning. Most
arrested belonged to the middle-class, many were employed in call centres.

Preliminary investigations have indicated that the bungalow was
hired for Rs 60,000. The party was organised by one [Name redacted],
who managed to give us the slip. The traffickers confessed that they
supply drugs at such parties daily, mostly held at bungalows
in Marve, Gorai, Bandra and Peddar Road.

As told to J. Dey