Gurugram A city court on Thursday awarded three-year imprisonment to a bar owner under the Drugs and Cosmetics Act for running a hookah bar on Golf Course Road.
According to the court’s order copy, “Accused owner Rohit Kumar’s Hook ‘D’ located at Central Plaza Mall on Golf Course Road (GCR) was raided by drug controllers of Gurugram and Rewari in 2013.”
Officials had found 10 hookah flavours at the spot, of which five were collected as samples and sent for an examination.
Amandeep Chauhan, drug control officer, who conducted the raid in 2013, said, “The accused was on trial for the violation of Drugs and Cosmetics Act, 1940. In 2013, on visiting the spot, we found many persons present on the premises and hookah being served. Many tobacco molasses products were there and five of them were taken for sampling. Serving nicotine in liquid form was banned on the grounds that it contains harmful chemical.”
In 2014, prosecution was launched against the accused before the chief judicial magistrate, Gurugram. Criminal law was set in motion as the accused could not produce drug sale licence or other documents under Drugs Act provisions. There was no proof of sale/purchase or distribution record. In 2019, a chargesheet was filed against him under CrPC for the violations under the Drugs Act.
Earlier in January 2017, the first-ever conviction under the Drugs Act took place in the state. Prakash Chand, the accused, was allegedly running a hookah bar in the Sector 14 market despite a ban. He was arrested in 2013 from the Kasbah Hookah Lounge and Snooker but subsequently granted bail. Chand was the bar’s manager. Rahul, who worked at the bar, was also convicted. Hookah bars were banned in Haryana in 2010 after public interest litigation (PIL) was filed in the court in 2007. To stop the functioning of hookah bars, the district administration on March 2 in 2012 had invoked Section 144.
{{/usCountry}}Earlier in January 2017, the first-ever conviction under the Drugs Act took place in the state. Prakash Chand, the accused, was allegedly running a hookah bar in the Sector 14 market despite a ban. He was arrested in 2013 from the Kasbah Hookah Lounge and Snooker but subsequently granted bail. Chand was the bar’s manager. Rahul, who worked at the bar, was also convicted. Hookah bars were banned in Haryana in 2010 after public interest litigation (PIL) was filed in the court in 2007. To stop the functioning of hookah bars, the district administration on March 2 in 2012 had invoked Section 144.
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