38 held for rioting at Baga hotel

NT NETWORK

Calangute

Thirty-eight people, including the owner of the five-star hotel ‘La Calypso’ at Baga, was arrested for creating  riotous scenes and allegedly molesting women staffers of the hotel in the wee hours of Thursday. 

The hotel is being operated by Atlantis Entertainment, which had taken it on lease from hotel owner Kaushal Khanna for 10 years.   

Giving details of the incident, deputy superintendent of police   Edwin Colaco said that Kaushal Khanna, Naman Khanna and 50 other persons trespassed into the hotel, restrained the staff from carrying out the duty at the casino and even molested the women staffers, causing damages to the property. 

A complaint was filed by Shrinivas Nayak, authorised representative of Atlantis Entertainment, at 9 am about the rioting at the  hotel that housed the casino. 

The complainant claimed that gaming chips carrying the value of at least Rs 15 crore and Rs 2.5 crore cash amount were taken away by the alleged rioters, committing the theft of more than Rs 17 crore, Colaco said.

The police arrested 38 persons for the alleged theft. The arrested people include the hotel owner, five women and five transgender persons.

The police registered the case under sections 143, 147, 447, 323, 341, 342, 354A, 427, 380, read with Section 149 IPC.

Reliable sources maintained that Khanna is the owner of the Baga-based La Calypso, which had been given on lease to Atlantis Entertainment to operate the casino for 10 years.  

The lease agreement expired in January 2019. The Atlantis Entertainment was not ready to vacate the premises. Hence a case was filed before the National Company Law  Tribunal in  New Delhi, the sources said.

Kaushal Khanna won the case in the tribunal, the sources maintained. 

On Wednesday night he came to the hotel with a hired mob from Mumbai and forcefully entered the hotel to stake his claim on it, which led to riotous scenes and alleged molestation of the women employees.

The ruckus was put to an end by the police, who arrested the hotelier and 37 other people.

It was also claimed that  the Atlantis Entertainment was ready to vacate La Calypso but Kaushal Khanna was not ready to release the deposit money of Rs 10 crore which had been paid to him by the company at the time of signing of the lease agreement to run the hotel.

However, Khanna disputed the claim of the Atlantis Entertainment.