Police probe financial details of party that failed to set sail

MUMBAI: The Yellow Gate police are investigating the financial details of the much-hyped new year party that never was. On January 1, the police arrested the organiser, Arvind Gupta, his son Gaurav, and his friend Abhishek Pasari for cheating a large number of people to whom they had sold passes. “The exact amount of money made by way of sale of the passes is yet to be ascertained as they did not have a price printed on them,’’ senior officer said.The police will also investigate Gupta’s claim that the passes were duplicated and sold by his rivals.
However, an officer said the passes, which were specially designed and resembled a majestic scroll, would have been difficult to duplicate. In fact, the ambiguity about the price tag makes it all the more difficult for those who returned without a party to claim a refund. Interestingly though, the organisers refunded 216 people a sum of Rs 1,500 each on December 31 itself when they started shouting slogans and manhandling the organisers. Gupta, Gaurav and Abhishek were released on bail by the Ballard Pier court. They apologised to the court for the incident and said that they had no intention of cheating any one. Sachin Kshirsagar (25) of Bombay Launch Services Ltd, who owned the barges provided to Gupta, was arrested on January 2.
He, too, was released on bail. The police are now questioning all the accused again to ascertain their role in the event. The police have recorded the statement of Anil Garg of Dynamo Communications, the company which provided infrastructure for the event. “He does not seem to have played a role in the mismanagement of the event,’’ an officer said. While speaking to this paper,Mr Garg denied Gupta’s allegations that Dynamo had hyped the event. “We were not in-charge of publicity or managing the event. We were only supposed to provide the barges and extend technical assistance for the display screens and music systems which we did’’ Mr Garg said.
He said that the first boat carrying revellers had reached the barge by 9.40 p.m. but Gupta had failed to arrange for the DJs. “The music system was ready but there was nobody to play it.’’ Mr Garg also said that there was some misunderstanding regarding the serving of alcohol on the barge and this had angered several of the guests, some of whom had turned violent.