22-year-old MBA student arrested for concert drug deaths
MUMBAI, April 18 -- The Vanrai police on Thursday arrested a 22-year-old MBA student in connection with the death of two other MBA students attending a concert at the NESCO Exhibition Centre in Goregaon East on April 11 due to suspected drug overdose, taking the total number of arrests in the case to eight.
The accused student, Subh Agarwal, studies in an Andheri-based college. He had delivered a batch of Ecstasy pills at the concert venue on April 11, to another arrested MBA student Pratik Pandey, police officers aware of the matter told Hindustan Times.
Agarwal was arrested late at night on Thursday and produced before the Metropolitan Magistrate Court in Borivali on Friday, when he was remanded in police custody till Monday. He has denied any knowledge of the alleged drug supply and claimed that he was merely asked to deliver a package to Pandey, investigators said.
As reported by HT earlier, several MBA students from the Jamnalal Bajaj Institute of Management Studies (JBIMS) attended '999999999' music concert at the NESCO centre on April 11. Among them, two girls complained of difficulty in breathing and collapsed at the venue, reportedly after consuming Ecstasy pills; while one of the girls died during treatment, the other is still hospitalised. Their college mate, a 28-year-old man, too died after complaining of dizziness and convulsions in the limbs during the concert.
The Vanrai police arrested five persons after the incident, including three JBIMS students, an event staff and an official from the NESCO Centre, while three other accused - Anand Patel, Vineet Sunil Gerelani and Subh Agarwal, who were allegedly linked with the delivery of Ecstasy pills at the venue, were arrested this week.
Investigators suspect that Ayush Sahitya, who is still absconding, was the main drug supplier linked to the case. Arrested accused Anand Patel had procured some pills from Sahitya and sent them to the concert venue in two batches, investigators said - via a courier service app to arrested accused student Pratik Pandey, and via Subh Agarwal, the latest person to be arrested in the case. Separately, Vineet Sunil Gerelani, who was arrested on Wednesday, procured another batch of pills from Sahitya and delivered them in person to students at the venue, investigators said.
The preliminary probe has revealed that the accused had created a WhatsApp group for drug transactions pertaining to the April 11 concert, which was deleted later. Investigators said they had recovered Snapchat messages from Gerelani's mobile phone indicating he distributed drugs in large quantities and received the payments in his bank account. His call records also showed that he was in touch with two other alleged suppliers who are absconding, and to whom he had transferred money in the past, immediately after the sale of drugs.
NESCO has denied any negligence on its or its employees' part, and said it was fully cooperating with the authorities....
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