A bar said to be secretly selling alcohol after 10 am in violation of lockdown rules was raided by police and three people were arrested.
Under the current Covid-19 restrictions, bars can remain open only between 6 am and 10 am, that too for takeaways.
But Srigandha Bar and Restaurant, located in Amruthahalli, Northeast Bengaluru, was selling alcohol way beyond the permissible hours. While it looked shuttered from the outside, known customers could still buy alcohol from an obscure window. Unsurprisingly, the bar charged double the maximum retail price (MRP).
When a team of police officers from Amruthahalli, led by inspector H V Suresh, rushed to the place around 6 pm on Friday after receiving a tip, they found the shutter rolled down but could still hear a lot of noise coming from the inside.
The policemen got the shutter rolled up and found three staff members inside: cashier Shivalinga, 31, and two others Manu, 25, and Bhaskar, 28.
The bar is owned by one K Bhagyalakshmi, and police have registered a case against her and the three employees under the Karnataka Epidemic Diseases Act, the National Disaster Management Act and IPC section 188 (disobedience to order duly promulgated by public servant).
Police said the bar not only failed to ensure social-distancing but also disobeyed the government order by serving customers on premises. About Rs 10,000 worth of alcohol and Rs 23,000 in cash were seized during the raid. There was another Rs 10 lakh worth of alcohol of various brands in the bar, police said.
Officials from the Excise Department later visited the bar and are in the process of registering a separate case over violations of the licensing conditions, police said.