Owners’ kin arrested, get bail within hours

Under pressure to come up with results, the Mumbai police on Sunday arrested two relatives of the pub owners – an uncle and a cousin -- on the charge of harbouring an offender who has escaped from custody or whose arrest has been ordered (IPC section 216).

However, the irony of it all was that the duo -- Rakesh Sanghvi and Aditya Sanghvi -- got bail within hours of the arrest with the police not getting any opportunity to interrogate them and ferret out information of the co-accused and the co-owners of 1Above -- Hitesh Sanghvi and Jigar Sanghvi and Abhijeet Mankar.

The three partners are feared to be on the run and are facing numerous charges, including culpable homicide not amounting to murder.

“We have registered a case against Rakesh, Aditya and Mahendra, the relatives of Sanghvi brothers for shielding them. Of the three, two were arrested and the search for Mahendra is underway,” said Avinash Shingthe, senior inspector of Byculla police station. “The relatives were arrested and produced before the Sunday court which later in the afternoon released them on a bail bond of Rs.25000 each,” said Mumbai police spokesperson Deepak Deoraj.

“I am a relative of the owners. We have no connection with the restaurant. I have no idea where they are,” Aditya told the media after being released on bail.