Police conducts surprise searches in Bengaluru pubs, bars to check drinking by minors

In a surprise drive to check alcohol consumption by minors in the city, police conducted checks on nearly 150 bars and restaurants, pubs and cafes on Friday.

They found a 17-year-old teenager sipping alcohol in a restaurant, while a case was registered against an establishment for serving hookah to another minor.

In one of the restaurants on BEL Road, a 17-year-old boy was served liquor. A case has been registered against the restaurant in Sanjaynagar police station and investigation is on.

The surprise checks were conducted under the instructions of Additional Commissioner of Police of East and West A Subramanyeswara Rao and Sandeep Patil, respectively. A team consisting police sub-inspectors and their subordinates from all the police stations were deployed to conduct the surprise checks in all the pubs, bars and restaurants and cafes in their respective jurisdictions in plain clothes.

A senior officer said Police Commissioner Pratap Reddy C H held a meeting with the owners of pubs, bar and restaurants on the backdrop of the Hyderabad case where a minor girl was gang-raped by a group of youths while returning from a party in a pub. Reddy had instructed the owners not to serve liquor to any minor.

The searches began around 3 pm as that is the time children come out of schools and colleges. The searches continued in all the places, the exact number of cases registered and details of pubs which had served liquor to minors will be known by late night or Saturday morning, the senior officer added.