15 hookahs seized in Amritsar, restaurant employee arrested

Tribune News Service

Amritsar, October 21

Acting on a tip-off that a restaurant was illegally serving hookahs to its customers, the city police raided a restaurant, European Night, in B Block of Ranjit Avenue here on Thursday.

The police confiscated 15 hookahs and seven flavours from the spot. The team was led by Assistant Commissioner of Police (North) Varinder Singh Khosa. A case under Sections 21 and 24 of the Cigarettes and Other Tobacco Products Act was registered against restaurant owners Sandeep Singh and Chandan Gupta and an employee, Umesh Kumar. Umesh was arrested while the owners managed to flee the spot.

The ACP said the Ranjit Avenue police station got a specific information that the owners of the restaurant were illegally serving hookahs to customers.

The Punjab Government has permanently banned hookah bars to check use of tobacco products in any form around four years ago. Punjab was the third state to ban hookah bars and lounges after Gujarat and Maharashtra.

Smoking hookah increases health risk as hookah smoke contains harmful and carcinogenic chemicals. Hookahs expose the consumers to toxic chemicals, besides increasing the risk of infectious diseases like tuberculosis (TB) due to sharing a hookah.

Nevertheless, illegal hookah bars have mushroomed in various restaurants and hotels in the past couple of years.

Earlier on September 17, the police had raided Egyptian restaurant in Ranjit Avenue and confiscated nine hookah bars from the spot, besides arresting its owner and manager. Similarly, in a raid, CIA staff had found hookah bars on August 6.

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