Ghatkopar’s Kick café came under fire from the Municipal Corporation of Greater Mumbai (MCGM) on Saturday for violating Coronavirus norms issued by the civic body’s Health department. Two separate MCGM teams carried out raids on the establishment; the first in the evening followed by one late at night which found the illicit hookah parlour.
Both raids found that more than 50% of the establishment was occupied and social distancing not being maintained. This led the health department to issue a notice to the establishment under the Epidemic Diseases Act.
The raids also found that the café was also found running an illicit hookah parlour as well. The Tilak Nagar police department was notified of this development following which police officials seized the illegal material and lodged First Incident Reports (FIR) against the establishment owner and manager (for running illegal hookah activities).
245 of the café goers were fined for not wearing masks. Cases against the violators were registered by the Gamdevi police station.
These raids come at a time when Mumbai witnessed a surge in COVID-19 cases. There were 2,982 cases on Saturday, the day of the raids. At the time of filing this report, the total number of Coronavirus cases rose up to 3,58,879, with the number of deaths at 11,572. There have been 3,25,061 recoveries and 21,335 active cases.
(Image representational)