Lizard fell in food from Elante food court’s ceiling, says Sagar Ratna general manager

Sagar Ratna general manager Santosh said the area where the customer was dining at came under the food court management and was outside the supervision of Sagar Ratna

Responding to the allegations of a lizard in a meal ordered from Sagar Ratna at Nexus Elante mall on Tuesday night, the restaurant’s general manager on Thursday claimed that the lizard fell in the plate from the ceiling of the mall’s food court.

Sagar Ratna general manager Santosh said a lizard crawling on the ceiling of Elante’s food court fell into the customer’s plate of cholle bhature, which was not the restaurant’s fault. (HT File Photo)

General manager Santosh said the area where the customer was dining at came under the food court management and was outside the supervision of Sagar Ratna.

Santosh said a lizard crawling on the ceiling of the food court fell into the customer’s plate of cholle bhature, which was not the restaurant’s fault. Still, Sagar Ratna staff offered to replace the meal and refund its cost. But the customer turned down the offer and called the police, he said, adding that while the restaurant management regretted the incident, they were being accused wrongly.

Meanwhile, Puneet Gupta, owner of Ayaan Foods, that has taken the food court on lease, in a statement claimed that the lizard came from the Sagar Ratna outlet, as it was found under the bhatura, as per the customer’s statement to the police and couldn’t have fallen from the ceiling. He said regular audits were conducted at the food court and all precautions were taken.

Elante’s spokesperson had earlier said the mall was aware of the incident which happened on the premises managed by Ayaan Foods. “The hygiene and safety of patrons is of utmost importance and we will take all necessary steps to ensure such incidents can be avoided and will assist the authorities in a thorough food safety audit in the food court,” he had said.

After the customer’s complaint, the food safety wing of the UT health department had collected samples from the meal on Tuesday night. Results of the samples will arrive in the next 15 days, following which action will be taken as per rules, UT officials had said on Wednesday.