Home Stay Rave Party: All five accused get bail

Madikeri: All the five accused persons in the Kodagu Rave Party incident, where a huge quantity of ganja (marijuana) and other banned substances were seized at a Home Stay, have been released on bail. The bail was granted            on Jan. 13.

The accused are M.A. Appanna, the owner of the Home Stay, Jude Pereira of Pune, Shankar Shantanu of Mumbai, Sairam and M.V. Eshwar of Bengaluru.

The arrests were made on Jan. 12 and they were produced before the Judicial Magistrate First Class (JMFC) Court on Jan. 13 and the Judge granted them bail the same day.

The District Crime Detection Squad (DCDS) that raided a Home Stay on Jan. 12, had arrested Appanna and the four youths for allegedly organising a Rave Party at ‘Nelaji A-1 Glamping’ Home Stay located at Nelaji village coming under Napoklu Police limits.

They had in their possession 205 grams of ganja, 29 grams of charas and cash.

Apart from the banned stuff, DCDS also seized three ganja leaves crushing equipment, two tiny weighing scales, 17 tobacco rolling paper packets and filters, mobile phones, hookah, Rs. 1,75,500 cash, music system, generator and a mini lorry from the accused.

Following several complaints from the public that late night rave parties were being organised at some Home Stays, Kodagu SP Dr. Suman D. Pennekar had instructed the officers and staff of DCDS to take stringent action following which the DCDS raided the Home Stay at Nelaji village.

It is learnt that the Home Stay owner had taken permission from the Police to organise the party saying that they were celebrating the first anniversary of the Home Stay. During the raid 70-80 revellers were found high on drugs, but only those in possession of ganja were arrested.

Meanwhile, the SP said that all Home Stays will now be under vigil and appealed to the people to tip off the Police about any illegal activities in their neighbourhood.

This post was published on January 16, 2019 6:37 pm