Executives Challenge Arrest in High-Profile Concert Drug Case

Two senior executives of a renowned exhibition centre in Mumbai have approached the Bombay High Court, challenging what they claim is their illegal arrest following a fatal overdose incident at a recent music concert. Balkrishna Balram Kurup, vice-president of Live Events and IP at NESCO Exhibitions, and Sunny Jain, a senior manager at the centre in Goregaon, were arrested on April 13.

The arrests followed the deaths of two MBA students who allegedly overdosed on MDMA during the April 11 concert held at the NESCO Exhibition Centre. The students were from a prestigious business school in south Mumbai. Both Kurup and Jain have filed a petition through their advocate, Rishi Bhuta, insisting on their innocence and arguing that no evidence links them to the procurement, distribution, or consumption of the illicit drugs in question.

The executives maintain that the terms of entry, clearly printed on concert tickets and displayed at the venue, strictly prohibited illegal substance consumption or possession. They further argue that their arrest breached legal protocols, claiming that arrest grounds were provided in a language one of them does not understand without proper explanation.