Inquiry into why Juhu police let hotel operate

The police commissioner has ordered an inquiry into how the Juhu police allowed Oakwood Premier Hotel to function for so long without several police-issued licences.

The police commissioner has ordered an inquiry into how the Juhu police allowed Oakwood Premier Hotel to function for so long without several police-issued licences.

A sundown party at the hotel was raided on Sunday night, where police found 110gms of cocaine and 64gms of charas and ecstasy pills.

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Arup Patnaik, commissioner of police, Mumbai confirmed that such an inquiry had been initiated.

Meanwhile, Vishwas Nangre-Patil, additional commissioner of police (west region), said that police were first investigating the background of the hotel before initiating an inquiry against the local police.

"We are finding out how many parties were organised by the hotel in their premises and if they had obtained the necessary licenses for them. We are getting details of these events and also finding out if drugs were a part of those parties as well," said Nangre-Patil.

Meanwhile, residents of the area said that parties were a regular occurrence at the hotel, adding that most of the parties were organised for the occupants of the hotel rooms, usually foreigners. "The parties would go on till at least 4am. For the past one year, we have been calling the police control room and complaining against the nuisance, but all our pleas had fallen on deaf ears. The party organisers had obviously managed the local police on all such occasions until the raid on Sunday night," said a social activist who lives close to the hotel.

The police, on Wednesday, had also revealed that the hotel has been charged twice in earlier this year for holding parties without seeking appropriate permissions from the local police.

"We have found that the hotel has hosted at least six parties this year. Of these, the hotel was charged twice for not having requisite permissions," said Pratap Dighavkar, deputy commissioner of police, zone 9.

Dighavkar added that the procedure to suspend the hotel's licences was initiated under the Juhu police's purview on Wednesday.

The Juhu police, on Thursday, recorded statements of 10 more patrons who were at the party.