Farmhouse in Noida raided for ‘rave’ party, 192 arrested

NOIDA: A police team, led by the Gautam Budh Nagar SSP, raided a farmhouse in Sector 135 where a “rave” party was being hosted early on Sunday and arrested 192 people, most of them college students from Delhi and Haryana.
Among those arrested were 161 men and 31 women, including the owner of the farmhouse, Amit Tyagi, a Delhi resident. Though a huge quantity of liquor and tobacco were seized from the venue — Eco Farms — no narcotics were recovered.
Apart from Tyagi, the other organisers were identified as Kapil Singh, Pankaj Sharma, Adnan and Bolesh Kohli, all residents of Ghaziabad and Noida. Police said they had admitted to have organised 50 such parties in the past.
Police said they were probing allegations that some officers of the local police station were hand-in-glove with the organisers. Eco Farms, the farmhouse, comes under the purview of Expessway police station.
The raid was carried out around 1am after an anonymous caller informed SSP Vaibhav Krishna about the party. A team of 50-60 personnel from various police stations was formed and the farmhouse raided. It was found that the organisers had not taken permission to either serve liquor or host 200 people at the venue.
Krishna said the caller had told him that some officers of the local police station had turned a blind eye to the party, which is why he preferred to call him. “We received information around 11pm about an illegal party being organised in the farmhouse. He alleged that the local police were involved and he could not rely on them. We prepared a team of officers from other police stations and raided the farmhouse around 1am. The party had started around 10pm and there were 200 guests,” Krishna said.
The officer said that initial investigation had revealed that the party was convened over social media and pitched as a 12-hour weekend celebration in the name of “Saturday Pool Party”. “It was organised on an invitation basis. There was an entry fee of Rs 10,000 for men while entry for women was free. The party was convened on social media. The organisers have confessed to have hosted 50 such parties in the past,” Krishna said.
The investigation has also revealed that nine girls had been hired by the organisers for “entertainment” of the guests. “Nine of the 31 arrested women have told us that they were hired as ‘entertainers’. Their job was to serve food and alcohol at the tables. They were hired at Rs 1,000 for the night along with 10% of the bill of each guest they would have served,” Krishna added.
Sources in the police said there are almost 100 farmhouses in the Yamuna-Khadar region where weekend parties are organised with food and liquor.
At the party in Eco Farms, the guests had come in 39 cars and 9 bikes and they were mostly college students from Delhi and Haryana. Police have seized all the vehicles along with five big hookahs, 26 small ones, 112 full bottles of beer, 30 imported alcohol bottles, 11 packets of hookah tobacco, five packets of coal and some sedatives.
“We have booked the accused under sections 60/63/72 of the Excise Act along with sections 268 (public nuisance), 278 (making atmosphere noxious to health), 188 (disobedience to order duly promulgated by public servant) of the Indian Penal Code. All the accused were sent to jail after being produced in a court on Sunday,” SSP Krishna said.