Villupuram: In the early hours on Sunday the Villupuram district police raided a rave party that was being conducted in a cashewnut orchard at Alankuppam near the Auroville township and during the exercise, detained 15 persons and seized 150 gm of ganja from the accused. As the police raided the rave party that was being organized in a cashewnut orchid its organizer, Yuvaraj hailing from Manapakkam was also among the arrested persons and the police have booked them under the Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances Act. Superintendent of Police Mr. S. Jayakumar, said that the police had obtained specific information that a rave party is being organized at the particular orchid. The SP led the raid on the rave party around 1.30 am. A great deal of publicity was done to get the event to the notice of as many people as possible by the organizers as they publicized the event on social media platforms and had enabled location sharing feature with Google Maps. The entry tickets to the rave party were priced at Rs.1, 000 per couple. Ganja peddling by a few youngsters were noticed at the party and IMFL had been procured from Puducherry. A trap was organized by the police to arrest the accused. Decoys were sent in by the police who struck a deal with them in the guise of buying tickets for the event, Mr. Jayakumar said. The party attendees included over 80 persons, which comprised of Aurovillians, foreigners and youngsters from Chennai. Formal permission had not been obtained in order to conduct the event. The orchard is located close to a reserve forest, he said. The orchid had been cleared by the organisers and had set up a stage with sound systems and amplifiers. Similar party had been organized in Mamallapuram recently by the organizer, Mr. Jayakumar added. The youth detained were brought to the Auroville station for interrogation. Further investigations are on. ]]>
