Patna: Excise officials raided the office room of Mamta Restaurant on Fraser Road today and recovered 168 liquor bottles within 12 hours of a police raid in which the manager and a waiter were arrested for allegedly serving liquor to customers.
At 11pm yesterday, a team from the Kotwali police station raided the restaurant in the basement of Maharaja Complex and found nine bottles of Indian made foreign liquor (IMFL). FIRs have been lodged against the owner and the two persons arrested.
The operation, coming on the heels of similar operations at The Panache, was conducted after a tip-off, said Patna SSP Manu Maharaaj.
“The entire hotel management, including owner Jamuna Prasad Singh, has been booked under sections 47(a), 53(b) and 63 of the Bihar Excise (Amendment) Act, 2016,” said Maharaaj. “Two employees of the restaurant – manager Ramanand Singh and waiter Neel Kamal – were arrested but no customer was found during the raid.”
The sections under which the management have been booked deal with consumption, presence, sale and purchase of liquor on the premises and carry a punishment up to 10 years. The owner is absconding.
Officials of the excise department carried out another raid around 11.30am today with information from the police about more liquor bottles on the premises.
The excise department raided the restaurant’s office room on the second floor of the complex and found 168 IMFL bottles of different brands.
“Our team went to a small room on the second floor of the complex that the restaurant used as an office space. Liquor bottles stacked in cartons were recovered,” said Krishna Prasad, assistant commissioner (excise), Patna. “The hotel management had created an attic-like space above the room and more liquor bottles were recovered from there. Shashank Kumar Dey, another manager of the restaurant, was arrested. An FIR will be lodged against him.”
“The owner is absconding,” said assistant superintendent of police (law and order) Shibli Nomani. “The excise department too raided the spot today and arrested a person. He has not been handed over to the police and we believe the department is carrying out its own investigation. The premises have been sealed.”
In another raid today, police raided a house in Mainpura and recovered spurious liquor filled in IMFL bottles. Two persons were arrested.
