Drunk diners in ugly brawls at upscale restaurant

Boisterous patrons assaulted each other in two simultaneous drunken brawls at an upscale restaurant in central Bengaluru on May 12, police said.

The staff of Shiro, a UB City eatery famous for Japanese, Balinese and Chinese food, were so overwhelmed by the ugly fights they had to call the police to separate the four groups of patrons.

It first started at a noisy birthday party. Archith Narayan, a 34-year-old resident of Malleswaram, and his friends — Aravind, Kshitij and Ajay — were dining at another table. They objected to the noise. The other group didn’t take kindly to the criticism and argued back.

The quarrel took an ugly with members of both the groups abusing each other. Some members of the other group then charged at Narayan and his friends, hitting them with beer bottles.

Narayan later filed a police complaint, blaming the other group for the violence.

The police also received a counter-complaint from Darshan, a member of the group celebrating the birthday. Nine people from both groups were arrested.

Another fight broke out in the women’s washroom at the same time. Devayani, 25, a diner who had come with a friend named Surabhi, found a woman lying unconscious in the washroom. She raised an alarm in the hope that someone would come and help her.

Punched in face

Just then, a couple claiming to be the friends of the unconscious woman walked into the washroom. Presuming that Devayani had beaten their friend, they slapped her on the head and punched her in the face, leaving her with a black eye. Devayani, too, filed a police complaint.

In all, the jurisdictional Cubbon Park police have registered three FIRs over the drunken brawls. They are yet to arrest anyone involved in the washroom incident.

The restaurant management was unavailable for comment.