Raid Andheri bar for selling alcohol at ground floor, send 21 patrons for medical check-up, say they will invoke the Prohibition Act
Raid Andheri bar for selling alcohol at ground floor, send 21 patrons for medical check-up, say they will invoke the Prohibition Act
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Late-night revellers at the popular LP bar and restaurant in Andheri West were going about their business of drinking when they saw a big phalanx of cops file in one after the other.
Police raid LP Bar for selling liquor without a permit on the ground floor
As a deputy commissioner of police, an assistant commissioner, a senior inspector, and a number of constables swaggered in at the stroke of midnight hour, and started hauling people up for drinking permits, the carousers sobered down.
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The owners and managers, at a loss to understand the reason for the rigorous check, were shocked.
The bar, with its ground-plus-one area, was selling liquor on both the floors. The cops asked the bar's management for its licence, and after checking it, came to the conclusion that it did not have the permit to serve alcohol at the ground floor.
The cops also said that they were selling it to people without drinking permits.
An hour and a half later, at about 1.30 am, they rounded off 21 customers at the bar, who they thought were drinking without permits, and sent them for a medical check-up. And said that they would arrest the bar's management.
The police inspector on duty, who did not wish to be named, said of the bar's patrons, "We will arrest them under the Prohibition Act for drinking without a permit.
The bar's managers will be arrested for selling liquor to them as the management only has the licence to run a restaurant, not a bar."
One of the owners of the bar, Santosh Anna, was taken aback at the sudden foray.
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"I don't understand why they are raiding our premises with no reason. We have been running this place for years and selling liquor on the ground floor.
If that was a problem, they should have told us years back. They should have notified us that we couldn't sell liquor at the ground floor."