 "Chirayu Amin, Alembic")
The police raided a liquor party on Thursday night at a farmhouse on the outskirts of Vadodara and booked around 260 people.
One of them was Chirayu Amin, former chairman of the Indian Premier League, who heads Alembic, the pharmaceuticals and realty company. Also booked was a noted business personality, Rakesh Agrawal, the police said.They found 116 bottles of beer and 103 of other liquor, priced at Rs 1,28,950.
The raid was at an Akhand farmhouse in Ampad village. Of the 260 booked, 134 were women. Any possession, sale or consumption of liquor is banned in Gujarat. The state had tightened the law only last week, via an ordinance.
The offence invoked against the party’s organisers is the amended Article 65 of the Gujarat Prohibition Act, punishable with 10 years rigorous imprisonment and a fine of Rs 5 lakh.
"We registered two different cases. One is against the organisers of the party, Jitendra Shah and his son Abhay, also owners of the farmhouse. They have been arrested,” said Saurabh Tolumbia, district police head of Vadodara (Rural).
Milder sections of the prohibition law were invoked in other offences against those present. ‘We’ve taken blood samples of all those who were present, and let them off," he said.
The pre-marriage party was to celebrate the wedding of the grand-daughter of Jitendra Shah, police said.
