Poison shock for Raj Kundra

Raj Kundra fulfilled his one dream when he married Shilpa Shetty last month, but he may just have to give up another one.

Raj Kundra fulfilled his one dream when he married Shilpa Shetty last month, but he may just have to give up another one.

Kundra's plans to start a hi-end night club in discotheque Poison's premises may be scuttled, as the previous owners failed to tell him that Poison was being run illegally.
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Sources say Kundra has paid Rs 2.5 crore deposit for its 12,000 sq-ft area.

Poison was run in the basement of a residential building in Bandra (W), but, as Dr Jairaj Thanekar, executive health officer, BMC, confirmed, "Basements can be used only for storage purposes and not for anything else."
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This came to light only after Poison owners sold it to Kundra. When asked what action will be taken against the erring Poison management, Thanekar said, "It is the ward officers who can takeu00a0 action against the owners."

Spot of Bother: After paying Rs 2.5 crore for club's premises, Raj Kundra finds Poison was running it illegally.

The senior H-Ward official under whom Poison fell said, "You are the first one to inform us about this. We will definitely look into the matter."

A senior excise official said, "We do not issue licences unless the pub gets eating house licence from the BMC.
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Poison's liquor licence had expired in October, but as of now, we have not been asked to renew it. We will not issue liquor licenses to anyone who wants to start a restaurant or pub at that place."

A source, who was the part of the management of Poison,u00a0 said, "They knew that it was illegal, but they acquired necessary licenses through wrong means and ran it for almost two years."

With Poison's irregularities now in the open, the BMC, fire brigade, excise, police and music licence providers will come under scrutiny.

Refusing to comment on the irregularities, Dilip Joshi, director, Poison, said, "It is up to the new owners on how they would like to run the show.

We left the place only because the lease was too expensive at Rs 2 lakh per month."

The Other Side

When we messaged Shilpa Shetty asking for their stand on the issue, she messaged back: "It never was an eating joint, it's a night club! It's on schedule and opening in February if all goes well. It's no longer called Poison, it's Royalty."