Dara Singh's nephew forges documents for liquor license, booked

Shaad Randhawa

Indian professional wrestler, actor and politician Dara Singh's nephew, Shaad Randhawa allegedly forged documents to get a liquor license for his restaurant Bayroute in Cuffe Parade. He has been booked by the Mata Ramabai Ambedkar Marg police station.

The cops are probing if Shaad had forged the tenant receipt and NOC which was issued by a co-owner of the property and were submitted to the state excise department at Old Customs. According to a report in Mumbai Mirror, Ruzbeh Raja, 32, an IT consultant and the co-owner of Minoo Manor building on Captain Prakash Pethe Marg, Cuffe Parade who houses the restaurant, registered a complaint.

According to Raja, the property which was owned by his grandfather was given on rent under the pagdi system which is regulated under the Maharashtra Rent Control Act, 1999.

For those unversed, in the Pagdi system, the renter is also the co-owner of the property and pays a nominal rent as compared to the market.

In his statement to the police, Raja said, One of our tenants was Sardar Singh Randhawa who earlier used to run a hotel called Gossip Corner in the building. When Sardar Singh died in 2013, Shaad told me he would get a NOC from his mother and sister as he is the legal heir after his father."

Since Shaad didn't produce the NOC, Raja wrote to the superintendent of state excise department to apprise him of the situation. The restaurant re-opened in March 2018 in the name of Bayroute and then Raja came to know that the restaurant had permission to save liquor.

"I was surprised because the permission to serve liquor had been given to Gossip Corner, which was run by Shaad's father. None of the co-owners of the property had issued NOC to Shaad, which is required to renew liquor license," said Raja.

However, an RTI inquiry of December 2018 revealed that Shaad had submitted a fake NOC and rent receipts to get a liquor license. A case has been registered under relevant sections of the Indian Penal Code.

Shaad, in his defence, said, "Raja has been projecting himself as the landlord of the building, which he is not. He has been harassing tenants and several of them have approached the local police station. We have done nothing unlawful on the property, which has been in existence since 1976."

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