Mumbai: Pepper spray leads to painful exit for customers at Lower Parel bar

CCTV grabs of Tamasha lounge bar inâÂu00c2u0080Âu00c2u0088Lower Parel on the intervening night of Saturday and Sunday

Mumbaikars enjoying their Saturday night at Lower Parel's lounge bar Tamasha had to make a hasty, and painful, exit after a miscreant sprayed pepper spray on the premises. Customers were seen coughing and rubbing their burning eyes while hurrying to the exit, with the restaurant emptying within minutes.

Following the incident that could have easily turned into a stampede and become a disastrous situation, restaurant authorities have complained to the local police station, seeking action against the unknown miscreant.

It emptied within minutes after someone sprayed pepper spray in the restaurant

Something in the air
An employee said, "The incident happened a little after midnight on the intervening night of Saturday and Sunday. One minute all was fine, and the next minute, patrons all around had started coughing with their eyes watering. We rushed to the toilet first to find out if the source of the discomfort was there, but found nothing of the sort. After that, we checked the kitchen, but there too, all was well. We then came to the conclusion that someone must have sprayed something in the restaurant."

"Soon after the incident, we opened the door and windows, and switched off the air-conditioning. There were 350 to 400 patrons present when this happened. Thankfully though, all left peacefully and safely," another staffer said.

Checking for clues
Senior inspector of NM Joshi Marg police station Ahmad Pathan said, "We have received a complaint from the restaurant and have asked the fire department to look into it and tell us what exactly happened. Meanwhile, we are checking footage from the CCTVs in the restaurant for clues."

The restaurant has now installed a metal detector at the entrance and also hired male and female bouncers. Owner of the lounge bar Priyank Sukhija said, "Initially, we thought it was the exhaust system that had failed, but the kitchen temperature was perfectly normal. Soon, we discovered that a miscreant had sprayed pepper spray. Not only did all patrons leave, but even our staff was in no condition to work. It took us 20 minutes to normalise things.

"We are investigating the matter and searching for the culprit with the help of our CCTV recordings and will take the help of authorities to find the person. As a policy, we have decided to check and disallow pepper spray on our premises and advise our patrons to be careful."

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