Fearing clampdown by the newly appointed Police Commissioner, none of city dance bars entertained their patrons; owners assembled in a city hotel for a hush-hush meeting to discuss their course of action
Fearing clampdown by the newly appointed Police Commissioner, none of city dance bars entertained their patrons; owners assembled in a city hotel for a hush-hush meeting to discuss their course of action
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164 dance bars in the city that downed their shutters
While the meetings continue, the Commissioner stated that he was aware of what was going on at certain locations where women, who have been trafficked into the state, were being exploited.
The agenda of the meeting, which Mirji was rumoured to attend, was to revise the existing guidelines under which these dance bars function.
Hide and speak?
Over 40 dance bar owners were spotted with documents, calculators and laptops, discussing the guidelines issued by the commissioner over dinner at a hotel in the city. When MiD DAY reached the hotel, the owners denied having a meeting with Mirji and claimed that they were celebrating a colleague's birthday.
Sanjay Kochhar, president of the Dance Bar Association claimed that it was a private meeting and the commissioner was not present. The hotel where the meeting was held, normally has over 300 people son a daily basis. However, surprisingly it remained empty, except for this group.
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Vijay Rai, owner of Aishwarya Bar and Restaurant confirmed post meeting that the agenda was to discuss the guidelines issued by Mirji. "A prostitution racket was busted by the CID at Ex-servicemen Layout in RT Nagar where 38 girls were rescued. The commissioner was under the impression that these girls worked at our dance bars, and hence issued some strict guidelines. We gathered here to discuss the same, but could not make much headway," informed Rai.
Abide or else
Mirji told this reporter that he was aware of the series of meetings that were being held. "I have received many anonymous petitions from women who work at these dance bars. They claim that the owners have exploited them. Based on these complaints, I consulted the Joint Commissioner Alok Kumar and we came up with some new regulations, which these dance bars will have to abide by. In case of violation of any of these regulations, we will take strict action," Mirji said.
Innocence lost
Acting on previous complaints, the Commissioner said that they have received information that innocent women were being brought from out of state on the pretext of giving them employment. "The women who wrote to us claimed that they were forced to dance in bars and pushed into other illegal activities," he added.
Mirji confirmed that the jurisdictional officers have been instructed to keep a close watch on these bars to ensure that such activities do not take place.
A sources present at the meeting said, "Changing the secret locations where the illegal activities take
place was discussed. The commissioner has warned of strict action, so we have to change all our locations often," he said.
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