Two held for running illegal hookah parlour in Hyderabad

 Hyderabad: City commissioner’s Central Zone task force raided a hookah parlour under Saifabad police station limits and arrested two organisers who were found supplying hookah pots with spurious hookah flavours to customers online.

Based on information, cops raided the penthouse of Srinivasa Residency lodge in Saifabad and caught the organisers red-handed while they were found packing hookah pots with spurious hookah flavours to their customers, police said.

The accused Bikya Shiva kumar, 26, a hookah maker, and Gundeti James Fernandez, 26, hookah parlour organiser, both residents of Begumpet and natives of Nizamabad district were taking orders online, packing the pots at their premises and collecting huge profits by delivering the spurious material to their customers, police said.

Police seized boxes of flavoured hookah,Rs 2,000, a mobile phone and other incriminating material. During interrogation, the accused disclosed that they earlier worked in ‘Indique Bistro Food Court’ in Banjara Hills and developed friendship and decided to utilise their open terrace of the lodge for packing spurious substances and serving hookah pots, police said.

Cops also identified that the organisers have over 25 customers and to avoid police surveillance they used to order online. A case under section 20(2) of the COTPA Act and under section 21/76 of the CP Act has been registered against the accused. The accused along with the seized property were handed over to Saifabad police for further investigation.