Pune police on Thursday booked the son of a former state home minister for allegedly running an illegal hookah parlour. The operation was uncovered during a raid by Kondhawa police in the area. The accused, Bakir Ramesh Bagwe (36) from Lohiyanagar, is the owner of the hotel and Harun Nabi Sheikh (20), Bikram Sadhan Sheikh (20), Amanat Mandal (22) and Amanat Anwar were working as hotel staffers.
Police said on Thursday a team of Kondhwa police was on routine patrolling. At that time, they got information about hookah illegally being made available to customers in the Village Hotel on NIBM Road. Acting on the information, a team of police conducted a raid operation and found five customers being served hookah illegally. Police seized nine hookah pots, various hookah flavours and other materials worth ₹23,500.