Patna, July 29: Rave parties are quite the rage in the city if a drug peddler arrested yesterday is to be believed.

Five drug peddlers were arrested from the Rupaspur area of Patna yesterday. Police had seized heroin worth Rs 2 crore, cash and illegal weapons from them too.

One among the group, identified as Bablu Sah alias Bablu Danger, claimed during interrogation that rave parties are organised in the city restaurants and youths from well-off families indulge in drugs at such events.

A resident of Khajekalan (Patna City), Sah told the police that he had supplied drugs to a rave party organised on the other side of the Ganga (diara) last year. He earned a good profit by selling the drugs at the party, he claimed.

Sah, in his early 30s, revealed that such parties are organised in some hotels and restaurants in Patna every three-four months. Young boys and girls from affluent families attend such parties where liquor and drugs are in high demand. Each participant is charged anything between Rs 20,000 and Rs 30,000 depending on the size of the “group” indulging in the narcotics, he confessed.

The interrogators were taken aback when Sah confessed that girls from outside Bihar also visited Patna to attend rave parties. “They come to Patna by the evening flights and leave early next morning to avoid detection,” a police officer quoted him as saying.

Sah, along with four of his associates, have been booked under the Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances Act. The others have been identified as Sanjay Kumar alias Sanjay Ram (Ara), Ajit Kumar (Digha), Ajay Kumar Singh (Kankerbagh) and Kapildeo Rai (Vaishali).

It was also revealed that one Radh Chaan Seth, the owner of an Ara-based hotel, was the racket’s kingpin. The business has spread to Chhattisgarh, Uttar Pradesh and Nepal. Sabzibagh and parts of Phulwari Sharif in Patna have emerged as the nerve centre for the supply of narcotics.

Patna senior superintendent of police Manu Maharaaj told The Telegraph: “It’s true that rave parties are being organised in Patna. The racket had come to light during raids in areas falling under the jurisdiction of Rajeev Nagar and Pirbahore police stations.”

Sah, who was earlier booked in a murder case, revealed that he earlier used to sell narcotics to students of colleges and private schools. “I earlier used to sell charas-stuffed cigarettes to students of different academic institutions. The lure of making a fast buck attracted me to join the business,” he confessed.

He claimed police officers preferred not to touch main operatives of the drugs racket. “One of the organisers of the rave parties belongs to areas which are considered ‘untouchable’ in police parlance,” Sah is learnt to have told the interrogators.