NGO runs hookah bar, cops pull down smokescreen

 Its objective was to promote “dialogue and partnerships among people and cultures across the world”. But the organisation has been charged with operating a hookah bar on the roof of its office at one of the many ghats on the bank of the Ganges in Uttar Pradesh’s holy town of Varanasi, about 275 kilometres from here.

According to police officers in Varanasi, Kautilya Society, a registered voluntary organisation, was found running a hookah bar when cops raided its office at Dashashwamedh Ghat. A case has been registered against its office bearers who included three citizens of a European country.

Officers said they had been receiving complaints from several Facebook users that a hookah bar was being operated in the office of the organisation. 

A raid was conducted after verifying the information.

Sources said police were also investigating allegations that the organisation had violated rules by bring in foreign currency into the country for running it. There were also reports that the building was registered in the name of a foreign citizen, which again was illegal. Police said it is investigating the matter.

Earlier also, the organisation had been found fishing in troubled waters. It had been accused of constructing an extra floor in its building without obtaining approval of the Varanasi Development Authority. An FIR had also been lodged in this connection.

A huge quantity of construction material had been seized from the premises of the organisation then.

Incidentally, it is the same organisation which has filed a Public Interest Litigation (PIL) in the Allahabad High Court seeking a ban on all types of construction activities within two hundred metres of the Ganges as it caused pollution in the river.