Hotel staff, bouncers thrash groom and 10 others over DJ party in Ghaziabad; 9 held

GHAZIABAD: Nine employees of a hotel in the Masuri area were arrested and the owner called for questioning for allegedly molesting, abusing and attacking a groom and his relatives with sticks during a pre-wedding ceremony at the hotel, police said on Sunday.
The hotel owner's son, spotted attacking a person in a video of the incident, is absconding, police added.
The family had booked the Grand Iris Hotel in Govindpuri for the mehendi ceremony on Saturday evening and insisted the hotel staff to play the disc jockey past midnight which allegedly led to a scuffle. In a police complaint, the family claimed the hotel staff molested a few women guests, including the groom's sister and also tore her saree. They claimed, at the behest of the hotel owner, the staff and bouncers attacked the family with sticks and confined them on the premises for two hours.
The groom, who is a lawyer, and his brother sustained grievous injuries and were admitted to the ICU for treatment. A 13-year-old boy, who was attending the party, also sustained injuries while he tried to extricate his father while he was being bashed up by the hotel staff, the family claimed.
A 1.17 minute-long video clip of the incident, shared several times on social media, purportedly showed the hotel staff standing on one side of a gate armed with sticks even as the family, standing on the other side, is seen pleading to be let off. In a second clip of 17 seconds, the hotel staff is seen raining blows on the family members with sticks.
Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav, too, shared one of the video clips on Twitter and came down heavily on the ruling BJP for, what he called, "performing the last rites of law and order in UP."
The groom's sister told TOI that 60 people were attending the mehendi ceremony at the hotel on Saturday. "Around midnight, the DJ was stopped by the hotel staff. We requested them to play the music a little longer for the guests but the staff started arguing with the women. One of the staffers made an objectionable remark and when we objected, the staffers present on the floor started fighting with us," she said.
"The hotel owner and his cousin also molested me and a few other girls. As the staff surrounded us, my brother and his friends tried to intervene. It was then that the hotel owner instigated the staff to bring some sticks and attack us," the woman claimed.
According to the complainant, 20 people attacked the family and locked them up inside the hotel for nearly two hours till the police reached the spot. During the melee, the staff allegedly also snatched a bag containing Rs 3 lakh and a few valuables.
DCP (rural) Ravi Kumar told TOI that an FIR was registered against the hotel owner and staffers under IPC sections 354 (molestation), 354A (sexual harassment), 147 (rioting), 323 (voluntarily causing hurt) and 379 (theft). "So far, we have arrested nine people in the case, while the owner has been detained. Initial investigation revealed that the owner was not present on the hotel premises when the incident took place, but his son was spotted in a video attacking a person. He is on the run," Kumar said.
While the complainant accused the police of not reaching the hotel on time, the DCP rejected the allegations. "We reached the hotel soon after getting a call around 2 am on Sunday. We rescued them and took the injured to a nearby hospital for medical attention," he said.