> Pune Rave Party

Tuesday, March 6, 2007 (Pune):

A few of the 280 people arrested in a rave party in Pune on Sunday have been freed from jail.

They were granted bail earlier in the day but their release is delayed because they are not locals and need residents to stand guarantor for them.

Lawyer Ajay Kapile said "according to court orders these people can leave after paying the bail amount, but need someone to stand guarantee.

"The court has specified that the person standing guarantee has to be from Maharashtra".

Of the 287 youngsters most of them are college students and IT professionals from outside the state.

They were arrested for possession of drugs and drug abuse at a rave party in the wee hours of Sunday.

Hard drugs

Police say they had hard drugs like hashish, charas, ganja and California Drops.

Their inability to meet the court's condition is a sign of the changing face of Pune.

Hundreds of young men and women have migrated to work in its outsourcing hubs and software hotspots.

Mostly in their 20s with fancy salaries they don't understand why their friends have been jailed for a kind of socializing that's very common.

"There is nothing wrong in going to raves, in trying stuff. This is the age to do it," one of the said.

"This is very common. I know friends who do it. It's a stylish thing. It's vogue," said another.

While the young and the restless sound unapologetic, the parents and guardians are furious.

It is a common feeling that these youngsters are the soft targets of a harder drug racket that remains uncracked.

But the police has refused to back out and sent a very strong signal.

But despite all these arrests and questioning sessions there are still no answers, no solid leads on the organizers.

Families angry

Families of the boys and girls said it was wrong to charge so many of them, when only a few were taking drugs.

Top lawyers from Mumbai like Satish Maneshinde, who were brought down to fight for these kids, had questioned the manner in which the police raided the rave party.

"We need a thorough as to how media could accompany the police when they were raiding this party. Was this done for publicity, we are against drugs but does that mean all the youngsters who have been arrested were using drugs," said Manshinde.

Police, infact, said they found almost Rs five lakh worth drugs from charas to hard drugs and say most of the kids were using them.

"They had come from different cities for this party. We found and knew that drugs would be served here," said Vishwas Nangre Patil, SP.

The kids had come from all over, some were students and BPO workers from Pune, others had come from cities like Mumbai, there were even a handful of foreigners.

And while Pune wakes up to reality of drug culture many of these kids will be spending the night in Yerwada jail home to hardened accused in the Telgi stamp case.

Originally Posted by skylark

I thought the california drops were for 800 bucks per drop . My cousin bro whose few friends were arrested passed on this info