The Maharashtra government has issued a gazette notification seeking necessary changes to the present law that prohibits hookah parlours and bars in the state. The notification also sought to introduce punishment of up to 3 years and a fine up to Rs 1 lakh for violation of the law.
Within hours of the issuance of the notification, police raided a hideout in Hiwre Nagar and nabbed four people, including one owner. They also seized Rs 25,250 in cash, eight hookah pots, and flavoured tobacco, according to a report by Times of India.
Nagpur Police Commissioner Bhushan Kumar Upadhyay in a tweet lashed out on those involved. “Interested in smoking in? We will smoke you out. More drives coming up to smoke out the hookah parlours in Nagpur, and make our city safe and clean.”
The action was supposedly the first such in Maharashtra after the state released the notification of Cigarettes and Other Tobacco Products Act, 2018 on October 4. Cops earlier could book ‘challans’ for violations under the Maharashtra Police Act, 1951, which was then diluted by the court’s move of ‘no coercive action’.
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