BEER VENDORS FACE COP music, 29 tipplers in net
Less than 36 hours after The Free Press Journal carried a news article (Cops Turn Blind Eye) in its May18 (Friday) edition, exposing the brazen disregard of law by beer vends, sleuths of the Thane (rural) police launched a crackdown on unscrupulous outlets in the twin-city which had turned into open mini -bars.
A police team under the supervision of ASP Atul Kulkarni rounded up 29 tipplers who were brazenly consuming booze in and outside notorious beer vends on Saturday night. 29 people were rounded up in raids that were conducted at establishments including Sadaanand Beer Shop and MN Beer Shop. While a case under sections 112 and 117 of the Maharashtra Police Act, 1951 has been registered against the tipsy patrons, the owners have been booked under section 33(w) read with 131 of the same act for breaching license rules and playing an active role in encouraging the illegalities, thus posing law and order problems.
This apart from slapping notices under the relevant sections of the CrPC. However, all such illegal activities mysteriously remain ‘invisible’ to the local excise wing.
“To ensure that such menace is flushed out from the region, we will duly inform the excise wing and seek cancellation of licenses to such erring establishments. Such raids will be a regular practice from now on,” said ASP Kulkarni.
While drunken brawls are a regular affair, pedestrians especially women who are compelled to face the menace of guzzlers and can’t move around without becoming victims of eve-teasing or offensive comments, alleged locals.
Moreover shards of broken beer bottles, tins, disposable glasses and rotting food leftovers are found strewn all over the place which houses such rouge beer shops hat have mushroomed in each nook and cranny of the twin-city.