Mumbai: Following a raid on Friday, the Maharashtra excise department has temporarily suspended the license of Sai Prasad Kitchen and Bar, which sold four bottles of Budweiser strong beer to the BMW hit-and-run accused, Mihir Shah, at 3am when sale is prohibited. The action was taken for several alleged lapses, including deletion of the CCTV footage which showed customers visiting the bar after the 1.30am deadline. Meanwhile, it has come to the fore that the luxury vehicle reportedly driven by Shah has four challans for speeding.
According to the excise officer, the bar staff apparently sold liquor from the backside of the gate. Hours before Shah allegedly mowed down a woman with his BMW on July 7, two people came to Sai Prasad Kitchen and Bar to buy beer, which was given at an extra charge. The officer said that the bar has violated four important rules; selling liquor after the deadline, deleting the CCTV footage, buying liquor from wine shops instead of a transit permit mall to avoid GST and not registering the names of bar operators.
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The bar's license is registered in the name of a senior citizen, Jyoti Shetty. However, Ravi Shetty and another person were running the establishment, without getting their names incorporated in 'naukar nama' as required by the rules. According to sources, Ravi deleted the CCTV footage because he was afraid of getting caught by police after the hit-and-run case started making headlines.
Earlier, the excise department officials quizzed the entire bar staff for more than 10 hours.
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