Car stolen from valet parking, hotel told to cough up nearly Rs 5 lakh in Hyderabad

HYDERABAD: Imagine going out for a nice dinner and returning to find that your car, that had been entrusted with a valet, has been stolen. That’s exactly what happened with Abhishek Gyani, a native of Vikarabad, when he went out for dinner at Ohri’s restaurant in Basheerbagh. The incident happened way back in 2011, but Abhishek pursued the matter all these years with the consumer forum and has now won Rs 4.9 lakh as compensation.

In January 2011, Abhishek and his family went to Ohri’s for dinner late one night in their Toyota Innova. They availed valet parking and handed over the car keys to a boy employed by the restaurant. However, after dinner they found out that the boy could not bring back the car as he had ‘mistakenly’ given the keys to somebody else. Immediately, Abhishek lodged a complaint with Saifabad police station.

According to his complaint, there was a laptop, mobile phone, jewellery and cash worth Rs 10 lakh in all inside the car. Meanwhile, the restaurant management claimed that the family had created a fake valet token to gain money unlawfully from the restaurant. Moreover, in their written contention, the management said that valet services are to be used at the owners’ risk and the restaurant does not own any responsibility.

The commission, however, observed that the hotel had failed to implement security measures. They did not maintain a vehicle-in and vehicle-out register and the car was handed over to someone who did not have a valet token. Also, there was no CCTV Camera in the premises. “If the restaurant was serious in proving the complainant wrong, it would have lodged a police complaint but it didn’t,” the commission held. It also awarded the hassled consumer a compensation of Rs 4.9 lakh.