Police putting tight vigilant, might spoil ‘illegal’ New Year parties in the city
Mumbai is all set for New Year celebration with parties, rave parties, dopes and babes. Party organisers, peddlers and call girls’ racketeers are all preparing to rock the events whereas Mumbai Police is all tightened its belt to hunt down such ‘illegal’ parties and spoils the celebrations.
As there are high demands of Indian girls in Middle East on New Year’s Eve, many girls are travelling to Gulf countries. Shanno, ex-bar dancer (name changed to hide her identity), who is taking a trip from Mumbai to Bahrain with other girls said, “As our dance bars are partially closed so every year, we are traveling to Dubai and other middle east countries to earn for our livelihood. Here, no one is asking for Indian girls. High society here demands for Kazakhstani girls as Indian men have craze for white skin and some ask for Bangladeshi. Through social media and mobile contacts, these booking are done and the agents are hyperactive in supply and demand.”
Though the police have strengthened their vigilance on social networking sites to crack down on the consumption and sale of drugs at New Year parties, Anti-Narcotics Cell (ANC) officials have said they are keeping a close watch online, especially on Facebook events’ pages, Twitter, WhatsApp groups and event sites. The police said organizers create a private event page on such sites where a select group of people are invited. They use code words and even spread misleading information, such as ‘celebrities’ attending the event.
An event organizer who arranged Rave parties earlier said, “We have database of those who had earlier attended these types of parties. We contact them through private SMS Services. They spread words among their group to avoid police interference. Organisers never write or say that a rave party is being organized or drugs will be on sale. They use different terms which are known to the group members. Some event pages ask invited guests to pay before the party or register via e-mail, after which they will receive a code number that they have to display at the party to avail of services. Also, peddlers have a closed network and do not widen it easily by involving unknown people.”
Rajendra Sangle, Senior PI, Anti Narcotic Cell (ANC) Worli unit said, “When parties are held with so many terms and tight lipped circulations, they are in our radar. We send some dummy consumers to such parties to crackdown drugs racket.”
“On New Year Eve police is busy on patrolling to maintain law and order situation. Many personnel are busy providing security at high profile parties and events. Actually, reaching to ‘illegal’ parties are not possible unless specific information. In some cases, police are aware about such events but can’t take action and you should know why. Nowadays, pubs and open spaces are not hotspots for such activities. They happen at private parties in hotels, rented bungalows at the beach or in apartments.
Apart from drugs and girls, Mumbai police main focus is on anti-terror operations. Mumbai police said they have devised three-pronged strategy to avoid any untoward incident during the upcoming New Year celebrations.
DCP (Detection), Dhananjay Kulkarni said, “To loop in the new year, a large number of Mumbaikars gather at public places like The Gateway of India, Marine Drive, Chowpatty among others. We have deployed police at these places. He said the focus would be on women’s security, drunken driving and terrorist activities.”
“Many misfortunes occur in the city during December 31 night merriment. To curb such incidents, we would barricade various places. Drivers would be checked with the help of breath analysers and action would be taken against the offenders,” the DCP said.
Our focus is on anti-terror operations. Mumbai is always a target of terrorists. Keeping this in mind, we have not given permission for boat parties in the sea this year,” he said.
They are also giving priority to women’s security and have formed anti-eve teasing squad at every police station. They would be in civil dress and would patrol public places regularly to keep a tab on troublemongers. Mumbaikars would be under CCTV surveillance during New Year celebration. The CCTV project in South Mumbai has been started and the command centre is in the control room of police headquarters. With its help, police would keep an eye on anti-social elements and take action against the culprits.
