HC stays trial against Munawar Faruqui in hookah bar case

Faruqui also denied smoking a tobacco-based hookah, stating he used a designated smoking area and did not request a hookah containing tobacco. As a customer, he said, he could not be held liable for any violations by the restaurant

MUMBAI: The Bombay High Court on Tuesday stayed the trial against stand-up comedian and Bigg Boss 17 winner Munawar Faruqui, who was booked for allegedly smoking a tobacco-based hookah at a parlour in the Fort area.

HC stays trial against Munawar Faruqui in hookah bar case

Faruqui was detained along with 13 others after the police raided a hookah bar in Bora Bazar in March last year, acting on a tip-off that customers were using tobacco hookahs while claiming to smoke herbal variants. An FIR was later registered and the case transferred to the Enforcement Unit for investigation. He and the others were booked under provisions of the Cigarettes and Other Tobacco Products Act (COTPA) and Indian Penal Code sections 283 (obstruction in a public way) and 336 (endangering life or personal safety of others).

In his application filed on September 19 through advocates Hrishikesh Mundargi and Swarali Joglekar, Faruqui sought quashing of the FIR, asserting he had been “falsely implicated” and that neither the FIR nor the charge sheet made out any offence against him. He argued that the legal responsibility lay primarily with the owner or manager of the establishment, and that he was merely a customer with no role in running the parlour or awareness of its licences and permissions.

Opposing the plea, additional public prosecutor Kranti Hiwrale argued that Faruqui was indeed smoking a tobacco hookah, making provisions of COTPA applicable.

Staying the proceedings, a division bench of justices Revati Mohite Dere and Sandesh Patil directed the prosecution to place the charge sheet on record and adjourned the matter to December 8 for further hearing.