Pune: City police have booked an owner of Hotel Night Cravers and his cook on charges of running their outlet during the lockdown period despite prohibitory orders given by the police and district administration. 

FIR has been registered against hotel operator and owner Anuj Ghanshyam Chaurasiya (34), a resident of Undri and his cook Prakash Tarachand Khatri (30), a resident of Bhintade Nagar. Police have pressed charges against them under section 188 (punishment for disobeying any order duly promulgated by a public servant) of Indian Penal Code (IPC); section 51b (refusing to comply with any direction) of the Disaster Management Act, 2005 and section 3 (disobeying any regulation or order) of the Epidemic Diseases Act 1897. The complaint has been lodged by police at the Kondhwa police station. The suspects will be arrested soon and produced before a court. 

According to police, units 5 of the crime branch nabbed the two suspects from their hotel. Chaurasiya was operating the hotel during the lockdown which started from July 14 and will continue up to July 23 as the Pune Municipal Corporation (PMC) orders. As per the PMC orders, all hotels, restaurants have been asked to remain shut during the lockdown especially during the first five days in which even the home delivery or parcel services and online food delivery services are also shut. The civic administration is going to review the situation after five days and take a call regarding restarting these services. However, Chaurasiya, who runs the hotel, did not comply with the orders and continued the operations. He was assisted by his cook Khatri. 

Pune police have appealed citizens to follow the lockdown rules to prevent the cases of Covid-19. Around 261 police officers and 1627 police personnel have been deployed to take action against the lockdown violators in containment zone areas. Police have taken action against 450 persons under section 188 of IPC on Wednesday and Thursday.