2 IPL players among 100 held at drug-laced rave

The IPL’s season of horrors continues. After Shah Rukh Khan’s meltdown in Mumbai and the charges of molestation against a Royal Challengers Bangalore player, the latest scandal involves two players who were detained after a rave party in Mumbai on Sunday. Late on Sunday, two IPL players, one of them a foreigner, who belong to the Pune Warriors team were among about 100 people detained after a rave party at Hotel Oakwoods in  Juhu at which cocaine and other drugs were used. PTI reported that police sources had declined to identify the players, saying that medical tests were being conducted to establish if the players had themselves used banned drugs. But The Telegraph reported, quoting a Mumbai police source, that the two players were Wayne Parnell and Rahul Sharma. [caption id=“attachment_315585” align=“alignleft” width=“380” caption=“Police detained nearly 100 people, including two IPL players, after the party. PTI”]  [/caption] “Wayne Parnell and Rahul Sharma of Pune Warriors were picked up after we busted a rave party in a hotel,” The Telgraph report quoted the police source as saying. “They were detained for questioning. Their blood and urine samples were also taken to test whether they had consumed any drugs. They were let off after two-and-a-half hours. They may be called back if the samples test positive.” Rahul Sharma, however, said that while he was present at Oakwoods hotel on Sunday, he was attending  a different party. “I went for a birthday party at Oakwoods hotel in Juhu. I had just reached there but nobody was present. I am right now going to my room,” he said. The Telegraph report quoted Sharma as saying that he was “at the wrong place at the wrong time.” “I had been invited to attend a birthday party at the hotel by a friend’s friend,” the report quoted Sharma as saying. “As I went in around 8.45pm at the restaurant, I saw police everywhere. They called me, asked me a few routine questions, took my samples and let me off. I am not scared because I have not done anything wrong.” Parnell, it noted, was unavailable for comment. The newspaper also claimed that among those detained were a celebrity fashion designer “well known for his association with Bollywood, and an NCP leader’s relative.” In addition, the boyfriend of a Kolkata-based actress and a DJ were among those detained, it added. Following the late-night raid, Additional Commissioner of Police Vishwas Nagre Patil said that about 110 grams of cocaine had been seized along with other popular drugs like ecstasy, and charas. Some 58 boys and 38 girls were detained and sent to hospital for a blood and urine test, he added. A case would be registered against those who tested positive for drug use, he said. “We will do a proper investigation into who organised the party and who were the drug peddlers,” Patil said. The Times of India reports that among those detained were also children of celebrities. It noted that the police would lodge cases under two heads: one for possession and the other for consumption of proscribed drugs. The raid was organised around 8 pm following a tip-off from a decoy who had been sent to the party. Officials said they had recorded the statements and contact details of those detained. With inputs from PTI