The Kochi police have arrested six persons, including a Russian musician, Vasili Markelov aka Psykovsky, for possession and use of narcotic substances including ketamine. They were taken into custody from a DJ party held at a luxury hotel at Maradu near Kochi on Saturday night.
Deputy Commissioner of Police Hari Shankar said that the musician had in his possession “a brownish powder which tested positive for hashish and marijuana”. Sources said that Markelov, said to be a proponent of the Psychedelic Trans music, had admitted that the drug was sourced from Russia for $15.
The others held from the DJ party were identified as Sebastian (24) from Vyttila, Kochi, Safwal (22) and Gautham (25), both from Thrissur. The police also took into custody two Kottayam natives, Sumith and Rahul Pratap who were seen smoking ganja at the parking lot of the hotel.
Police officials said that the incident justified their suspicion that Kochi was fast becoming a drug hub of South India where peddlers and abusers from abroad were playing a pivotal role. The Kochi police had arrested eight persons, including a Nigerian citizen, in connection with seizure of cocaine from a luxury apartment in Kochi in January. Those arrested in connection with the January incident also included a new generation Malayalam film actor, Shine Tom Chacko, and four young women – an assistant film director, a fashion model, a designer and a travel company owner.
The police said that an event management group based in Bangalore had organised the DJ party at the Kochi hotel by doing the publicity through Facebook and a WhatsApp group. “The entry fee was Rs1,000 per person of which Rs200 would go to the coordinators and another Rs200 to the hotel as rent. The rest was to be taken by the DJ,” Hari Shankar said.
“The DJ party was organised with the knowledge of the hotel but it is yet to be ascertained whether it had any knowledge of the drug abuse going on there,” said the police official. The DJ parties and other gatherings of the elite youth in the city had been under the police scanner since the cocaine seizure of January.
According to officials, the Russian musician had first arrived in Goa where Psychedelic Trans music is very popular. He had then gone to Bangalore from where he reached Kochi on the invitation of the event management group which organised the DJ party, they said.