Mira Bhayandar, May 11: Less than 48 hours after a dance bar was taken to task for defying lockdown rules, sleuths of the Mira Bhayandar-Vasai Virar (MBVV) police commissionerate raided another restaurant-cum-permit room in Kashimira on Monday night for serving booze and eatables to customers inside the establishment.
The raid has yet again exposed the brazen defiance of some notorious bar owners who were throwing the mandated Covid-appropriate behaviour to the wind.
Acting on a tip-off a team led by API-Mahendra Bhamre attached to the crime detection unit under the supervision of Senior Police Inspector- Sanjay Hazare swooped down of Hotel Disha Palace- an eatery located in the Penkarpada area of Kashimira.
Despite lockdown orders, the establishment was found to be clandestinely operating by giving backdoor entry to customers and serving them liquor and food behind the locked doors of the dining area, police said. Fifteen people including the manager, cook and waiters along with the soliciting customers were rounded up and booked under the relevant sections of the Indian Penal Code, Bombay Prohibition Act, Disaster Management Act and for violating the in-force Epidemic Diseases Act- 1897.
Restaurants and eateries have been allowed to operate just parcel services in compliance to the mandated guidelines. While further investigations were underway, the MBVV police have rolled up their sleeves to seek cancellation of excise permits and other licenses awarded to such erring establishments which were putting the lives of others at risk by encouraging the spread of the deadly pandemic. However, the owner and operator who are the actual beneficiaries of the trade are still at large. Despite blatant violations by a section of notorious bar owners, officials from the excise department continue to remain in slumber. The police seized Indian Made Foreign Liquor (IMFL) and beer worth more than Rs 27,000 from the establishment.
