In an incident that is indicative of the “Dhoble Effect” spreading to areas other than Mumbai, the Pune rural police raided a party in the early hours of Sunday morning, detaining around 300 revellers and seizing liquor worth nearly `10 lakhs. This is the third such raid outside Mumbai, with the previous two being in Pune and Panchgani.
According to the Pune rural police, the raid was conducted at the Maya Lounge in Wagholi village on the Pune-Ahmednagar Highway at around 1 am on Sunday. The hotel belongs to Anjali Nirmal, whose husband Rajneesh Nirmal is a police inspector with the Pune Anti-Terrorism Squad.
The police admitted that the revellers were not even minors, and that the offence was only registered for stocking and serving alcohol without permit, and for continuing the party way beyond the permissible deadline.
“A total of 110 girls and 190 boys were taken into custody along with the hotel’s partners Harjit Sahani and Abdul Abbas Jaleel and managers Saud Anwari and Shreyas Tatra. The last four were later arrested. A medical team from Pune’s Sassoon Hospital was immediately dispatched around 4 am to the spot to conduct blood tests to determine the level of alcohol consumption,” said an official with the Pune rural police requesting anonymity, adding, “The revellers were booked under Sections 110 and 85 and were released on bail by afternoon. No drugs were found at the hotel, and alcohol worth `9.83 lakhs has been taken into custody.”
Additional superintendent of Police, Vijaykumar Magar said, “The organisers had procured permission for partying only between 7 and 11 pm. However the partygoers started flooding the lounge only after 11 pm.” Last week, the Pune police’s social service branch had conducted a raid at the River View resort in the Koregaon Park, where several underage revellers were caught.
In the same week, the Panchgani Police had conducted a raid at a hotel in the Gureghar village, arresting 18 people.