Cops raid 4 ‘dance’ bars, arrest 80

The crime branch along with the social service (SS) branch on Friday raided four city bars and rescued nearly 60 bar dancers from there. All the bars have been booked under the newly enacted Maharashtra Prohibition of Obscene Dance in Hotels, Bar Rooms and Protection of Dignity of Women Act, 2016.

This moves comes a week after bar owners moved the Supreme Court challenging the Act and also informed that they would not be adhering to the it. According to the SS branch, they were tipped off that the bars had employed women under the guise of waiters but were making them perform obscene dances. Acting on the tipoff, the police raided four bars —Pegus bar in DB Marg area, Mehfil in Ghatkopar, Pink Plaza in Andheri and Samudra bar in Bombay Central.

“After receiving the tipoff, we conducted raids in the bars and arrested nearly 80 people, including the bar managers, waiters and customers,” said an SS branch officer. Sources added that the officials arrested 18 people and rescued 17 women from Pink Plaza while 19 were arrested and 27 women rescued from Mehfil Bar. The officers also put 25 people under arrest from Samudra Bar while another 18 were held from Pegus bar and 12 women were rescued from there.

“All the four bars that were raided had not been issued licenses and were functioning under the guise of orchestra bars and a usual alcohol-serving bar,” said the officer.

Recently, following a Supreme Court order directing the state government to issue licences to dance bars, the police issued fresh licenses to three bars in the city —Airo Punjab and Sai Prasad at Andheri and Indiyana at Tardeo.

The people arrested have been booked under sections 3, 8(1) (2) and 8(4) of the newly-enacted Maharashtra Prohibition of Obscene Dance in Hotels, Bar Rooms and Protection of Dignity of Women Act, 2016.

While the Mumbai police had issued licenses to three bars, sources informed that the police would be regulating them and conducting checks based on conditions mentioned in the new Act.

“The old rule mentioned in the Bombay Police Act is not applicable any more since it has been repealed. There is now only one Act the new one for which rules have been formed. We have no choice but to regulate them under this Act,” said an officer. He added that this would change only if the Supreme Court ordered so.

Sources also said that the department had also informed the apex court that the bar owners were flouting rules and conditions that they had previously agreed to. “The SC in its previous order said that the bar owners should not employ anybody with a criminal background which the bar owners association agreed to follow. But they did not mention that some of the bar owners themselves had cases registered against them. We have raised this point and hope that the Supreme Court will look into it,” said the officer.

According to this Act, if the accused is found guilty, he will be charged with five years’ imprisonment or a fine of Rs 5 lakh. All the accused were produced in court on Friday and remanded to custody.