Manager, worker sentenced to three years in jail for running illegal hookah bar in Gurgaon

Accused Prakash Chand 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. He has been declared as a proclaimed offender.

A city court on Friday awarded three-year imprisonment to a bar manager and worker under the Drug and Cosmetic Act, 1940 — the first ever conviction under the act in the state. The accused was allegedly running a hookah bar in the Sector 14 market despite a ban.

A city court on Friday awarded three-year imprisonment to a bar manager and worker under the Drug and Cosmetic Act, 1940 — the first ever conviction under the act in the state.

Accused Prakash Chand 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. He has been declared as a proclaimed offender.

The team of the Haryana Food and Drug Administration (HFDA) raided the bar, an outlet in Sector 14 and arrested 25 people, including six women.

The sleuths seized four hookahs and 15 boxes of nicotine from the spot.

Chief judicial magistrate Gagandeep Mittal on Friday convicted Prakash Chand and Rahul. Mittal imposed a fine of Rs 1lakh each on the duo along with the jail term.

Read: Ghaziabad: Four held for allowing minors in hookah bar

Amandeep Chauhan, district drug controller, said, “The case against the accused was registered under the Drug and Cosmetic Act 1940 for running the hookah bar in violation of rules. This conviction is first of its kind in the state after serving nicotine in liquid form was banned on the ground that it contains very “harmful chemical”.

Hookah bars were banned in Haryana in 2010 after a public interest litigation 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. In one year itself, the health and police department raided seven hookah bars across the city.

In July, 2013, over 100 students from prominent schools were caught in a bar called Hookah Baron after an excise department raid.

A number of hookah lounges were operational in posh malls and shopping centres in Gurgaon.