A Crime Branch team raided the two pubs and allegedly found customers being served hookah. (File photo)The Crime Branch of the Pune City police raided two rooftop pubs in Pune’s Kondhwa after receiving information that they were illegally serving hookah to customers. Two people were booked and various materials, including flavoured tobacco and hookah pots, were seized, the police said.
The social security cell of the Crime Branch received information on Tuesday night that two rooftop pubs in a commercial complex on NIBM Road in Kondhwa were illegally serving hookah to their customers. Subsequently, a Crime Branch team raided the two pubs and allegedly found customers being served hookah.
Two people who were part of the pubs’ management were booked, the police said.
The distribution of hookah was banned in Maharashtra in 2018 after the state government amended the Cigarette and Other Tobacco Products (Prohibition of Advertisement and Regulation of Trade and Commerce, Production, Supply and Distribution) Act. The offence in the case has been registered under the same legislation.