Pune Warriors players Rahul Sharma and Wayne Parnell may be arrested
Eighty-six of the ninety people — including cricketers Rahul Sharma and Wayne Parnell — detained by police while busting a rave party at a plush Juhu hotel on May 20, have tested positive for drugs.
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This was confirmed after results from the 44 remaining tests were revealed yesterday — only two of them negative.
Vishwas Nangre-Patil, additional commissioner of police, west region, said, “We have received the results of the remaining 44 samples. 38 of these were women and six were men. 36 females and all six males have tested positive.”
Patil, however, refused to comment specifically on the test results of the cricketers.
Out of the 42, 35 have tested positive for cannabis, three for cannabis and cocaine and four for cannabis and MDMA.
Among the 44 others who had previously tested positive, 27 had consumed cannabis, one had used MDMA, while 16 others had used both.
Rahul, who is in the Indian squad for the ODI series in Sri Lanka, had said after being detained, “I am sure my results won’t be positive. If tests are positive, I’ll quit cricket.”
Parnell had claimed that he and his fellow Pune Warriors team-mate were innocent and that they were “at the wrong place at the wrong time” after the duo were detained during the raid. Although Parnell admitted that both the players were present at the party, he said they were unaware of any drugs being supplied there.
Police had on May 20 raided the Oakwood Premier and rounded up 90 patrons — including foreigners — following inputs about presence of drugs at the party. Those detained were let off after their urine and blood samples were taken.u00a0
BCCI tight-lipped
BCCI president N Srinivasan didn’t want to elaborate on the matter, saying it will be addressed at an appropriate time. “We have no information about the incident apart from somebody narrating the whole incident. We will surely update you as and when we get the details,” Srinivasan told MiD DAY. Asked whether he had spoken to leggie Rahul Sharma, the board chief said, “Unless we have all the documents in our hands, how can we speak to anyone?”
However, it is learnt that BCCI has started working on the issue and will decide the future course of action shortly.
— By Sanjib Guha