Nagpur: Mojo’s Cafe – Nagpur upscale and elite restaurant in Bajaj Nagar, has been sealed on Wednesday night, on the ground of non-grant of commercial certificate from NMC. However, more skeletons tumble out of the closet which indicates far fetched conspiracy behind the action. Sources claimed that DCP does not have the power to seal any property. They alleged that there was much more than meets the eye behind the move, which has raised series of questions on the role of police as well as the two people residing behind the restaurant – Pramod Mahajan and Dr Amol Dongre.
Demand for money
One of the partners of Mojo’s Cafe, on condition of anonymity, told Nagpur Today that both Mahajan and Dongre have been harassing the owners on petty grounds. Both were allegedly threatening them to apply every trick in the book to get their restaurant shut down, alleged a source. Mahajan and Dongre have been allegedly pressing the owners to cough up money, against the assurance of no action.”They (Mahajan and Dongre) went on to file RTI and tried pointing out the loopholes and objected to every tiny glitch, but could not get any solid ground. Eventually they kept on alleging that we played loud DJ till late night despite the fact that we have no DJ at all and most of the families including children have been the part of our customers. This is just a ploy to harass us for money,” added a source close to the restaurant.
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Friday 27 Dec. 2024
No hearing at all
When asked about the license, one of the partners was quick to reply, “We have all the necessary license in place. As far commercial license is concerned, we got it from Tehsil office as NMC officials asked for huge kickbacks against issuing us the license. Even if that has been the ground for cancelling our license, we would have been served notice before nailing us,” added the partner.
Allegations are baseless
Sources said that earlier also crime branch came to Mojo’s Cafe and checked for the hookah and found herbal ingredients being used. “Sheesha (hookah) is legal as per Supreme Court ruling as it contains herbal flavour.” At that time, even those cops found nothing objectionable and gave the restro a go ahead. “Once DCP Nirmala Devi also conducted a search at our place and she was quite ok with the functioning, but how come DCP Shailesh Balkawde sealed the restaurant without even giving us time to file reply,” advocated the partner
RTI filed to know DCP’s power
One of the newspaper in the city pointed out that there were three murders in the area but DCP Shailesh Balkawde was only interested in shutting down Mojo’s Cafe. This points out serious irregularities in the way things have been initiated in the entire episode. It is learnt that Mojo’s Cafe owners have filed RTI seeking information about the ground on which the DCP Shailesh Balkawde cancelled the license and sealed the property. Lawyers are of the view that DCP does not have any power to seal any property.
