4 min readShimlaAug 11, 2026 05:34 PM IST
First published on: Aug 11, 2026 at 05:34 PM IST
With the Supreme Court now seized of the matter of “rave parties” organised near Kasol in Himachal Pradesh’s Kullu district, a detailed spot inspection carried out by a probe panel into a “festival” in June has thrown up several findings of lax implementation of rules.
The report, by Vishal Tiwari of the District Legal Services Authority, notes that the ‘Ananda Festival Pre-Party’, originally scheduled from June 7 to June 11, was held in a secluded stretch big enough to hold around 5,000 people inside a forested area, which was difficult to reach, was given “sound permission” despite police warning about the possibility of drugs and psychotropic substances being widely available there, and its events stretched way past the permitted time of 10 pm.
The report also speaks about the death of a Russian DJ, Daria Kuminykh, 29, at a home stay in Kasol on June 11, believed to have been caused by a drug overdose. The exact cause of death is yet to be determined.
The five-day Ananda Festival had wrapped up two days before schedule, on June 9, after the Himachal Pradesh High Court ordered a probe and a police party that raided the site seized drugs. Kasol-based Yashpal and Ishwar Singh, who had obtained the sound permission, were charged on grounds of allegedly serving liquor without a licence, and are out on interim bail. Two other FIRs were filed against two men allegedly caught with narcotics during the police search.
Subsequently, at a hearing on June 24, the High Court ordered the transfer of senior officers, including the Kullu Deputy Commissioner (DC), Superintendent of Police (SP) and Sub-Divisional Magistrate (SDM); directed the registration of an FIR; and ordered a probe by a Special Investigating Team headed by an officer not below the rank of deputy inspector general.
The court called the case “a classical case of abject surrender” by the officers.
DC Anurag Chander Sharma and SP Madan Lal moved the Supreme Court against the High Court’s direction, and on Monday, the Himachal government informed the apex court that the two had been transferred out of Kullu. SDM Nishant Sharma, who issued the sound permission and is currently on medical leave, will also be transferred, the Court was told.
The sequence of events began in June 2025, when Kullu-based NGO Himalayan Environment Protection Society filed a petition in the High Court alleging “rampant” rave parties around Kasol, with entry tickets priced anywhere between Rs 5,000 and Rs 7 lakh. This was not possible without bureaucratic connivance and political influence, the petition said.
Avinash Rai, president of HEPS, told The Indian Express, “We approached the High Court when we started noticing the direct impact of these parties, which have been held for a long time, on local youths… The consumption of drugs has also increased among them… We did not get any response from police, local administration or the Narcotics Control Bureau, and hence moved the court.”
The High Court subsequently clubbed the NGO’s complaint with other PILs of a similar nature pending before it.
Environmentalist Guman Singh, who has also been campaigning against these rave parties, says: “Why hold such events in secluded areas? It’s because the organisers of such events and participants don’t want to follow any rules.”
A police officer says: “As per procedure, police clearance is necessary to hold musical events, cultural events etc… The area DSP, Rajesh Kumar, indeed pointed out the possibility of the use of drugs.”
Chuneshwar Thakur, the lawyer for suspects Yashpal and Ishwar Singh, says they are innocent. “They only leased out their land for a party. They obtained the sound permission but they were not the organizers.”
The five-day Ananda Festival had wrapped up two days before schedule, on June 9, after the Himachal Pradesh High Court ordered a probe and a police party that raided the site seized drugs. (File photo) 
Share
