Vir Das show cancelled in VR Mall after rave party death

CHENNAI: On Sunday, it was reported that a 23-year-old techie collapsed while consuming liquor with his friends at rave party organised on the rooftop of VR Mall in Tirumangalam on Saturday night and died at hospital in the wee hours of Sunday.

Soon after this, popular stand-up comedian Vir Das, who had an event scheduled at the venue on Sunday, his show was cancelled and was informed by local authorities that they are sealing the mall for an further investigation on the incident.

He tweeted, "Chennai. We have just been informed by local authorities that they are sealing VR mall for an investigation on an incident that happened one or two nights ago. We will not be able to proceed with the show as they need to seal the venue." (sic)

Further added, "My team and I were leaving for the venue when we were informed and must of course respect and cooperate with the authorities so we will be rescheduling the show. That’s all the information I have right now. There’s no getting in or out of the venue. Will keep you posted. Guys. We were informed as we were headed to the venue. The authorities have decided to conduct a forensic, full investigation this evening. Spoke to the organisers and there’s honestly no way anyone could have known any sooner. When the police let them know, they let us know." (sic)

The deceased was S Praveen of Madipakkam, a software engineer at a private firm, reached the licenced bar on the fourth floor of the mall (around 900 people were reported to be at the venue) with his two friends in the evening and consumed liquor with them. At around 10 pm, while dancing to an orchestra music in the bar, Praveen suddenly collapsed on the dance floor and was rushed to a nearby private hospital and was referred to Rajiv Gandhi Government General Hospital (RGGGH).

However, his condition worsened in the wee hours of Sunday and his body was sent for post-mortem. On information, Tirumangalam police registered a case and are probing the cause of Praveen's death.

“Initial examination revealed he died of heavy drinking. He hails from Madipakkam in the city and after performing an autopsy at Royapettah Government General Hospital, the body was handed over to his family,” the official told PTI.

Inquiries revealed that the event was organised by the Great Indian Gathering and participants were charged Rs 2,000 for entry. Guests were served alcohol for which the organiser did not have permission and the event was by a Mexican DJ Mandra Gora who posted pictures that he took while playing his set also abused the city police on Instagram, which was echoed by others in the comments.

Investigation also revealed that liquor bottles were sourced from Monkey Bar on the third floor of the mall, while owners did not have a valid licence to run the bar.

The PEW cops have arrested three people in connection with the rave party. They were identified as Nivas Bojaraj, manager of the Madras Bar, Bharathi, manager of the Monkey bar, and Edwin, the event in-charge of the Madras Bar. Police have reportedly sealed the bars for violating licence norms. A total of 844 liquor bottles were seized.