Pune: Four restaurants in Koregaon Park have been raided by the Pune police on Sunday night, and the owners and managers have been booked for flouting rules in place to curb Covid-19.
Talli, Murphies, The Daily, and Publiq, are the four night-life destinations in trouble, according to a statement issued by the Pune police.
The four restaurants allegedly housed more customers than the permitted capacity, in light of social distancing norms.
While social distancing has been mandatory in the light of the pandemic, stricter norms were introduced after Pune district, and Maharashtra, saw a spike in the number of Covid19 cases in the past three weeks.
On March 14, Pune district recorded 3,267 new cases, according to district information office records.
The Pune Municipal commissioner’s office issued orders on March 12 that required restaurants and eateries to display their seating capacity and number of customers at any given time, according to the police statement.
However, no such display of information was made outside these restaurants, the police claimed.
{{/usCountry}}However, no such display of information was made outside these restaurants, the police claimed.
{{/usCountry}}“Those booked, include owners and managers of the four businesses,” according to senior police inspector Dilip Shinde. Subsequently, a case under Sections 188, 269 of the Indian Penal Code along with Section 51(b) of Disaster Management Act, 2005 has been registered at the Koregaon Park police station.
Who? We? Pubs deny flouting of norms
The owner of Murphies, one of the pubs raided, said he was not aware of the action. “I am out of the city on business and am unaware of any such action. We have been diligently following all the norms laid down by the PMC,” said Aman Talreja.
Daily All Day confirmed that the police visited their premises, but denied any action as taken. “In fact, we have been following rules from the beginning. We have a sitting area of 162, but we allow only for 100 tables. The police were here at 8pm because someone complained that the music was loud and they took away our music console,” said manager Abhijeet Biswas.
Karan Bhandari, owner of Tulli said, “We have been following social distancing and had 50 per cent capacity, when suddenly the police came in and many of the guests ran away without paying. It is a loss for us and we have done nothing wrong. We have sanitisers in place too.”
Publiq owner Anuj Agarwal does not deny the police action, but adds, “We strictly adhere to rules and follow all Covid norms. In fact, a fortnight ago we had a team from the PMC visit us and applaud us for ensuring social distancing.”