Director of Motwane Weddings, Aditya Motwane detained in Abu Dhabi for possession of cocaine

Officials at Abu Dhabi airport detained Aditya Motwane as he arrived into the city on 8 August and was suspected to be under the influence. Upon being searched a packet containing cocaine was discovered from his bags.

Aditya Motwane, the Director of top Mumbai based wedding agency Motwane Entertainment & Weddings, was kept in custody for two days while his blood sample was sent for medical examination. It is revealed that traces of cocaine were detected in his bloodstream. Since the effect of cocaine usually wears off between 20- 30 minutes there is reason to believe that Motwane nasally consumed the drug in the aircraft lavatory a little before landing.

Motwane Entertainment & Weddings has planned weddings for some of the wealthiest Indian families including Hinduja, Jindals and Bollywood stars. Living up to his reputation of being ‘the life of every party’, Motwane is a frequent traveller to party destinations like Ibiza and Mykonos. The official company website Motwane.co defines Aditya Motwane by his ‘youthful insanity’.

Motwane has been transferred to Al Wathba prison till the case is heard in court.

Until recently the anti-narcotics law in UAE called for minimum four years of jail time if suspect is found with any illegal stimulant, in any quantity. However last year President Sheikh Khalifa has issued an update to the original law from 1995 stating that drug use by first time offenders is no longer a felony and should be treated as ‘misdemeanour’. As per this revision, the court will see the size of the crime and evaluate individual cases before determining the sentence, as the four-year minimum term was seemingly too accumulative. The sentence will now be based on amount and type of drug taken, as per the judge’s discretion.

Motwane’s case is critical since the stimulant in question is class A type drug cocaine for which penalty would be more serious. Also, drug related cases of foreigners are looked at with more severity, as the country maintains zero tolerance towards miscreants bringing drugs into the country and tarnishing its clean image. Accordingly, UAE airports are equipped with advanced technology capable of detecting even residual amounts of drugs.

Since each case of drug use has different circumstances, under the new drug-laws revision the judge secures the right to consider the defendant individually. That said, last year a 35-year-old Frenchman was sentenced to life in jail in Dubai after he was found guilty of possessing 66.5g of cocaine. The quantity of cocaine discovered with Motwane is still unknown.