Hyderabad: The Jubilee Hills police raided a place called Hyderabad Times Café (H.T.C), operating from the pent house of Asma Estates on Road Number 36. The establishment, operating under the guise of a cafe, was found serving hookah pots with fake flavours to customers. Four persons, identified as Puranam Sai Krishna Chaitanya, 25, Routh Sai Bharat, 28, Ardhuri Janardhan,26, and Mohammed Shabuddin, 27, all working as food suppliers and helpers, were arrested for serving adulterated hookahs.
The police is searching for the owner, Mohammed Zeeshan Ahmed alias Zishan, and the manager, Riyas, who are on the run. During the raid, the police confiscated 28 hookah pots, 30 pipes, 150 filters, 1 kg of coal, aluminum foil, five boxes of hookah flavours, and various other materials. The West Zone deputy commissioner of police, Joel Davis, shared the information.
Zeeshan Ahmed had secured the terrace at Asma Estates on November 26 this year to operate the outlet. The cafe was found to be in violation of the COTPA Act, serving hookah pots with flavours containing nicotine and spurious substances. This illegal operation was designed to generate easy profits.
Joel Davis also revealed that Zeeshan had a history of operating a hookah parlour on Parlourat Road Numbers 1 and 9, situated on the fourth floor of a building near the Jubilee Hills Check-Post. Zeeshan faced a total of 17 cases for running the hookah parlour illegally.
The police team, led by ACP K. Hariprasad, M.M. Rakesh, sub-inspector of Jubilee Hills police station, SHO K.R. Ravindra, and others, conducted the raid late at night on Wednesday, apprehending the four accused along with the illegal materials used in making the hookah pots.
