Youths held for partying will have to bear stigma for life, say parents

Noida: Most of the 192 people arrested from the farmhouse party on Saturday night are college students and youngsters working in private firms and now, relatives fear their careers might be hanging in the balance. Having spent three days in jail, the youngsters requested their parents to get them out as soon as possible, those who met them on Wednesday told TOI.
“They have been stigmatised for life. This is too harsh a punishment,” said a parent of a youngster who got bail on Wednesday.
Among those arrested is a software engineer, a manager working at a brand’s store at IGI airport, a college student, several married men with children and an 18-year-old girl working woman.
While they were picked up by the police on Saturday night, the ordeal for the parents began when they failed to track their children. Some parents went to the nearest police stations to lodge missing complaints.
“We tried calling our son several times that day but could not contact him. Then I got worried and went to the nearest police station. There, the police told me I should check with Expressway police station once. When we went there, we found the policemen had a list of people with them,” said the mother of an arrested person. She added that the episode will have a negative impact on the careers of those held.
The person who works as a store manager at IGI has four-year-old son. His wife works as a teacher. On Wednesday, the man met his father at Luksar jail.
On Saturday night, 192 persons was arrested from a gathering that the police alleged was a ‘rave’ party. When the arrested persons appealed for bail, the police opposed it. On Monday, there was no hearing for the bail appeals because of a lawyers’ strike.
“The punishment is far more stringent than the offence. Somehow, our son was in wrong company. They could have simply called up the parents and reprimanded the youths. They (the police) opposed the bail and that was too much for the children. On top of that, the lawyers’ strike delayed the bail process further. Their careers are gone now,” the angry father of an arrested person told TOI.
One youth could not write his exams for a job at an airline company because of the delay in getting bail.
Some others felt that while the police action was legally correct ahead of the polls, the youths’ careers might suffer. Waseem, the brother of an arrested person told TOI that he would ask his brother to keep a good company. “He just cleared Class XII and had free time. We know it is something that he would regret for the rest of his life. But his life is spoilt,” he said.
Meanwhile, when contacted, Ajay Aggrawal, the investigating officer in the case, said the police have informed the court about the reasons for the arrests, which included presence of alcohol from another state and that no permission had been sought for consumption or import of the alcohol. “The court has been informed about the arrest, which is legally correct,” he said.