143 guests test positive for alcohol consumption, to be booked: Police

The party was hosted by businessman Jitendra Shah and son Alay of Shilchar Technologies, a company that deals in power and electric transformers —ahead of the wedding of the latter’s daughter. The Shah father-son duo were taken on remand and are now out on bail.

The investigations were carried out at the Gujarat Forensic Science Laboratory. The police arrested 134 male guests on the night of the party and released them on bail. They will now book the 143 people who have tested positive in the BAC test under various sections of the prohibition law. Although the women were not arrested on the night of the raid, 64 have tested positive in the BAC test, paving the way for their arrest and subsequent legal process. Police officials said that they were now gathering “more evidence” to make a watertight case against the accused.

During the raid, police recovered 103 liquor bottles — the FIR has names of every brand — and 116 bottles of beer worth Rs 1,28,000. Police also seized glasses and 90 luxury cars from the farmhouse. The police have now begun returning the cars to the owners, as per the order of the local court. Until Saturday, close to 45 cars had been returned to their respective owners.

According to the FIR, “the owners of the farmhouse, Jitendra Chiman Shah and Alay Jitendra Shah, illegally possessed foreign liquor, beer and other alcohol without permit at the Akhand farm owned by them. They invited their guests — men and women — to join them in a party and were caught breaching the law during a prohibition raid.” The FIR also states, “Jitendra Shah has admitted to the police that he had gathered the foreign liquor through his friends residing abroad for the pre-wedding party of his grand-daughter.”

Dr Nayna Patel, a gynecologist and surrogacy specialist, who was among the guests at the party and submitted her blood sample at the SSG hospital — she tested negative — feels that while the policemen were doing their duty to enforce the law against alcohol consumption, the action should have been more compassionate. “I had to be at the party as it was my daughter-in-law’s brother’s wedding. I was not aware when it all happened. I was preparing to leave when someone told me that the police had arrived. It was around 10.15 pm. I was sure that my report would be negative, but I had to go through the pain.” Patel added that the police held up a young lady with an eight-month-old baby until 5 am despite requests that she should be allowed to go. “A baby cannot be a drunkard. An 80-year-old lady was among those who gave blood samples until 5 am. Some 12 and 14-year-old girls were also taken to the hospital for collecting samples. Law is common for all, but why should one place be raided like this.” A senior police officer said that the raid was carried out with a specific input about the venue as part of an ongoing crackdown on illegal consumption and possession of alcohol.

However, some prominent personalities from Vadodara, who have tested positive for consumption of alcohol, differ. A woman guest in her late 50s, who was present at the party and belongs to a reputed business family of the city, termed the raid as “vengeful”. The woman said on condition of anonymity, “What kind of a crackdown is this? The police can pat its back and sing praises to itself, but are they really intending to crack down on alcohol possession and consumption? This was a raid carried out in vengeance against the reputed families of the city. We all know how openly alcohol is traded in the state with several known bootleggers even contesting elections. Do the police close their eyes to such illicit traders?” Terming the positive report as “fabricated”, the woman said, “I do not believe the report. The police will move mountains to save itself embarrassment and build a case. Nobody is denying that alcohol was consumed and served at the party. But nobody was in an inebriated state to have tested positive. There is a law of the land, we all know. But it is time to rethink whether it has any rationale and stop treating citizens like children.”

Speaking to The Indian Express on condition of anonymity, a police official, however, denied any “vengeance”. He said, “Until my officers went inside, we did not know who the guests at the party were. My officers identified the well-known personalities and told me that several known faces were present inside. But law is same for all. We were not under any pressure to conduct this particular raid. The government has laid emphasis on cracking down on alcohol consumption and we are pushing ourselves to enforce the law with due diligence. The people who have tested positive are now questioning the FSL reports, but we have tested all the samples in the Gandhinagar FSL, which is one of the finest in the country.”

The Vadodara city police registered 11 cases for possession of alcohol and 8 cases for consumption on the New Year’s Eve, this year. The number, it said, is far lower than previous years because of the “fear” provoked by the raids at Akhand farmhouse on December 22 when the police detained 273 people. On New Year’s Eve in 2015, the police booked 18 persons for possession and 14 for consumption of alcohol. Vadodara city Commissioner of Police Manoj Sashidhar said, “Stringent provisions in the newly amended Prohibition Act, zero-tolerance approach of Vadodara city police towards prohibition and other such illicit activities and recent crackdowns by police on liquor have ensured that the New Year 2017 festivities in Vadodara were totally peaceful.”