Sleuths of the Mira Bhayandar- Vasai Virar (MBVV) police commissonerate raided two hookah joints in the twin-city for flouting norms on Wednesday night. A total of 29 people including staffers and soliciting customers were rounded up by the police team from the two establishments identified as Herbal Hookah and Flavour Kitchen, both located in the posh Kanakia area of Mira Road.
The raiding team seized a large number of hookah pipes, pots and other incriminating material from the places. In one of the establishments hookah pots were found to be stuffed into a refrigerator. A case under the relevant sections of the Indian Penal Code and Cigarettes and Other Tobacco Products Act, 2003 or COTPA, 2003 has been registered in this context at the Mira Road police stations. Further investigations were underway.
While dozens of parlours have mushroomed in the twin-city, several bars and eateries, especially on the highway in Kashimira and coastal areas of Uttan-Gorai belt brazenly offer hookah services under the garb of serving herbal tobacco-free hookah by obtaining licenses under the shops and establishment act.
These dens are not only destroying the moral fabric of the younger generation, but also are playing with fire as most of them were said to be operating sans any fire safety regulations.