Drug deaths: Supplier held, police suspect larger racket
MUMBAI, April 17 -- The Vanrai police have arrested a 22-year-old man who allegedly supplied drugs to several attendees of the '999999999' music concert held at the NESCO Exhibition Centre in Goregaon on April 11, taking the total number of arrests in connection with the death of two MBA students attending the concert due to suspected drug overdose to seven.
The accused, Ulhasnagar resident Vineet Sunil Gerelani, was present at the venue during the concert, along with two other suspected suppliers who are currently absconding, police officers familiar with the matter said. The three alleged suppliers and other arrested accused, including some students, were regular visitors at the venue and may be part of a larger drug supply racket at events where youngsters gather in large numbers, the officers noted.
As reported by HT earlier, two students from the Jamnalal Bajaj Institute of Management Studies (JBIMS) - Shreya Rai and Sheetal Salvi - complained of difficulty in breathing and collapsed during the concert at the NESCO centre on April 11 reportedly after consuming Ecstasy pills. Later, their college mate Bismat Singh Bhasin too complained of dizziness and convulsions. While Rai and Bhasin died while undergoing treatment, Salvi is currently under observation at the Bombay Hospital.
The Vanrai police arrested five persons after the incident, including three JBIMS students, an event staff and an official from the NESCO Centre. On Tuesday, alleged drug peddler Anand Patel who is suspected to have delivered Ecstasy pills to students at the venue was arrested, while the seventh suspect, Gerelani, was detained for questioning on Wednesday and arrested later at night.
The accused had allegedly created a WhatsApp group for drug transactions pertaining to the April 11 concert, which was deleted later, hampering the probe. Investigators said they had recovered messages from Gerelani's mobile phone indicating he distributed drugs in large quantities via Snapchat 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, after sale of drugs.
"We suspect that a larger drug supply racket may be active at such events as location data shows that some of the accused, including those absconding, had attended previous events at the NESCO centre," an officer said, requesting anonymity.
Elaborating on the matter, the officer said that alleged drug peddler Anand Patel and JBIMS student Pratik Pandey, who have been arrested, had procured drugs on multiple occasions from the two absconding accused, Ayush Sahitya and Shub Agarwal. Both Patel and Pandey as well as Raunak Khandelwal, another JBIMS student arrested in the case, also stayed in contact with the absconders regularly, the officer said.
All seven arrested accused were produced in court on Thursday and remanded in police custody till April 18....
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