Ex-employee booked for trying to burn down Sakinaka restaurant

On December 13, Rajput was drunk when he came to work, which resulted in an argument with the owner, after which he was dismissed from the job. While leaving, he had threatened Bhor with dire consequences

MUMBAI: An ex-employee of a Sakinaka restaurant was booked on Saturday after he allegedly tried to burn down the restaurant a few days after the hotel owner kicked him out for showing up drunk at work.

The CCTV caught the accused lighting the pav bhaji stall on fire. (HT Photo)

According to Shubham Bhor, the owner of Pratik Hotel in Sangharsh Nagar, Sakinaka, the accused, Pankajsinh Rajput, 28, had been working in the restaurant for two months.

On December 13, Rajput was drunk when he came to work, which resulted in an argument with the owner, after which he was dismissed from the job. While leaving, he had threatened Bhor with dire consequences. For the next two days he kept calling the owner with various threats.

“Around 3 am on December 16, I got a call from a friend informing me that someone had burnt a part of my restaurant. Along with my two friends, I was able to douse the fire. Afterward, we looked through the CCTV footage to understand the cause of the fire,” Bhor later told the police.

The footage showed Rajput hurling some liquid from a bottle at the pav bhaji counter, just outside the restaurant around 2.45 am. He then struck a match and threw it on the counter, which quickly caught fire.

“Since the incident, Rajput’s phone has been switched off and he has not gone home. We are on the lookout for him,” said an official from Sakinaka police.

The accused has been booked under sections 436 (mischief by fire or explosive substances) and 506 (criminal intimidation) of the Indian Penal Code.