A restaurant that "illegally" served hookah was raided and three people were arrested, police said.
The place is Cafe Runway, a sprawling restaurant located at Kannamangala gate on National Highway 7 near the Kempegowda International Airport (KIA) on the city's northern outskirts.
Officers from the KIA police station raided the restaurant after receiving information that it was running a hookah bar in violation of government rules.
Police said the restaurant served hookah in the common dining area. There was no separate counter for food and fruit juice. Nor was there any notice disallowing minors.
Police also found 15-20 customers consuming hookah without any social distancing. No measures were in place to release the hookah smoke outside.
Police arrested cafe manager Atiqur Rahman, 25, and waiters Ayub Khan, 26, and Ganesh, 19. They also seized 12 hookah pots with pipes, 15 boxes of flavours and five packs of cigarettes.
A case has been registered under the Cigarettes and Other Tobacco Product Act, the Karnataka Police Act and relevant sections of the IPC. Cafe's owners Wasim Ahmad and Mohammed Salman have been named in the FIR.
Published 10 May 2022, 16:07 IST