We didn’t do drugs, cricketers say

Mumbai: A day after they and 86 others were detained by the police at a rave party in a suburban Mumbai hotel, Indian Premier League (IPL) cricketers Rahul Sharma and Wayne Parnell and actor Apoorva Agnihotri and his wife Shilpa denied having done drugs at the party.

Pleading innocence, the four said they did not know they were in a rave party.

Sharma, who plays for Pune Warriors in the IPL along with Parnell, said he would quit cricket, if he tested "positive" for drugs in the tests conducted on him by the police after his detention from Hotel Oakwoods at Juhu in north-west Mumbai.

"I am sure my results won't be positive … If tests are positive, I'll quit cricket," Sharma told media persons in his home city of Jalandhar where he returned after his release by the police in the early hours yesterday.

During the raid on Hotel Oakwoods at Juhu, the police detained 90 youngsters — 52 male and 38 female — and seized 110 gm of cocaine, ecstasy tablets and some hashish.

All the detained youngsters, including Sharma and Parnell, were subjected to medical tests at the nearby Cooper Hospital and allowed to go. The police will register against such youngsters who test positive in the drug tests, results of which are expected after a fortnight.

Hospital clearance

"I was told this was a birthday party, hence I went with Wayne. When we reached there, it seemed like a normal party which I usually attend. The cops wanted to check us, and we allowed. We were then taken to the hospital, and they cleared us," the leg spinner from Punjab said.

Like Sharma, Parnell said that he and his friend did not know they were in a rave party and that they were not aware of any drugs being supplied there, let alone consuming drugs.

"Myself and Rahul were invited to someone's birthday. We got there about 5pm in the afternoon and by 7pm, police officers were there. Obviously, once we were inside we got caught indoors," he said.

Unfortunate

"It is unfortunate we were there. But at the end of the day, it was just a simple case of being at a wrong place at the wrong time … We weren't aware of any drugs there or any rave party. It was out on a pool terrace," he said.

Parnell pointed out that both he and Rahul were teetotalers.

"People who know me and know that I don't drink or smoke. We both were just drinking water and dancing," he said. Both Sharma and Parnell said that they were co-operating with the police.

Meanwhile, the police have arrested one Vijay Vishesh Handa, who allegedly organised the party, under the Narcotic Drug and Psychotropic Substances (NDPS) Act.

He has been remanded by a local court to police custody till May 25.

Investigations have revealed that the organisers had sent out invitations on social networking site Facebook.