Meltdown at Mountview: Lawyer, mother abuse staff, break crockery  

A 32-year-old woman and her mother, aged 53, were taken into preventive custody by the police after they threw around plates, cups, cutlery and tables and hurled abuses at the staff at Hotel Mountview in Sector 10, Chandigarh, on Tuesday morning.

Swati Katari, identified from her ID card as a lawyer, and her mother, Rani, both from Karnal, had gone to a cafe at the hotel at about 9.30 am, police said. Trouble broke out after they started eating from the buffet and were asked by the staff to go to their table as they had ordered paranthas from the à la carte menu.

Even as the place started getting packed as other guests walked in for breakfast, the two “started abusing the staff and broke the plates, cups and cutlery stacked at the buffet table,” SP Bhardwaj, security officer of Hotel Mountview alleged.

He lodged a complaint against the two women with the police on behalf of the hotel. 

Security was called in and female guards overpowered the duo after they used pepper spray on the staff and police took them into custody soon after.

Both the mother and daughter were taken to the Government Multispecialty Hospital in Sector 16 for a medical examination. 

“We have registered a case against Swati and her mother. They are under preventive arrest and admitted to the hospital,” Ram Gopal, DSP (Central), Chandigarh, said. 

According to officials at Hotel Mountview, this is not the first time that the women have created trouble. “They are in the habit of creating a ruckus every time they come to the hotel. Earlier too we had to call the police after they had refused to pay hotel bills,” said Anurag Walia, deputy general manger, Hotel Mountview. 

“We have now passed instructions to ban the entry of the women into the hotel,” he added. 

Police said Swati had a sister in Chandigarh and a brother in Karnal, and both she and her mother had earlier failed to pay bills at not just Mountview, but at Hotel Icon in sector 8 and another one in Sector 43 as well. 

Currently hospitalised, Swati and Rani could not be produced before the sub-divisional magistrate (SDM) on Tuesday soon after their arrest. Rani refused to reveal her identify even at the hospital and gave her name as Buri Devi to doctors.

Both complained of uneasiness after using the pepper spray and were kept under medical supervision.

“If they are discharged from the hospital we will produce them on Wednesday before the SDM,” the DSP added.