The Villupuram district police busted a rave party in a cashewnut orchard at Alankuppam near the Auroville township and detained 15 persons and seized 150 gm of ganja early on Sunday.

The arrested, including event organiser Yuvaraj of Manapakkam, have been booked under the Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances Act.

Superintendent of Police S. Jayakumar. who led the raid around 1.30 a.m., said the police had specific information about a rave party being organised at the orchard.

The organisers had given wide publicity for the event on social media platforms and had enabled location sharing feature with Google Maps.

The tickets were priced at ₹1,000 per couple. Some youngsters were also found peddling ganja at the party and had also procured IMFL from Puducherry.

Mr. Jayakumar said the police trapped them by sending decoys who struck a deal with them in the guise of buying tickets for the event.

Over 80 persons, including Aurovillians, foreigners and youngsters from Chennai, were attending the party. No permission was obtained for the event. The orchard is located close to a reserve forest, he said.

The organisers had cleared the orchard and set up a stage with sound systems and amplifiers.

The event organiser had conducted a similar party in Mamallapuram recently, Mr. Jayakumar added. The police detained the youngsters and brought them to the Auroville station for interrogation. Further investigations are on.