Games 'hideout' busted

People come up with innovative ways to store banned items outside venues

Old habits die hard and vices die harder. As several items have been barred at the Games venues by Delhi police, volunteers, security staff, technical staff and spectators, deployed at different locations have come up with novel ways to hide items like cigarettes, pan masala and coins etc.


Pipe dream: A spectator hiding a paan masala pouch inside the iron pipe
of a hoarding near a Games venue.u00a0 pic/Subhash Barolia

As one requires a long walk before entering into any venue due to security checks, these people hide banned items anywhere - inside the grass bed, branches of plants or trees, on the top or inside some crevice of the boundary wall.

This correspondent observed an NDMC staff member, deployed at Talkatora stadium, smoking while coming out from the venue. "I keep the bidi and match box in the garden. I won't tell you exact the location, but we have found the way out. Otherwise, it will take about 15 minutes to reach the nearest pan shop."

On condition of anonymity, a security personnel posted inside Jawaharlal Nehru stadium said, "We are not allowed to have pan masala and cigarettes while on duty. But as we are so much under the influence of these things that the moment we get free, we immediately need them. As there is no shop near any of the venues, we are left with no choice but to bring such things along. But I make it a point, not to carry them along while on duty."

"As I am used to pan masala, hiding packets is not at all a difficult task. I generally bring five packets and keep them on branches of some tree near my place of deployment. Generally, no one bothers to peep in there and I find it a safe place," the security officer said.

While hunting for such hideouts, MiD DAY even found a pair of pan masala nicely rolled and inserted in one of the pipes from which CWG mascot's poster was hanging from one of the poles inside Pragati Maidan.

Some spectators who came to know about the barred items at the eleventh hour also followed the same technique. Rajeev Kumar, who had gone to watch the men's singles tennis final on Sunday, hid his coins at a park. "I had six Rs 10 coins in my pocket.
u00a0
I went to a nearby park and kept them on the boundary wall and hid them under some leaves. When I returned, I found them at the same place, safe and secure," he said.