A Mumbai restaurant became a talk of the town on Tuesday, a day after the Mumbai Youth Congress workers stormed the establishment and forced its closure for printing bills that carried a witty message mocking the UPA Government for bringing all air-conditioned eateries under the purview of the service tax in this year’s Budget.
While the patrons made a beeline to Aditi Pure Veg Restaurant, located opposite KEM Hospital at Parel in north-central Mumbai, all through the day, its owner Shrinivas Shetty was busy licking his wounds after having been booked for a non-cognisable offence under Section 501 of the Indian Penal Code for printing allegedly defamatory message at the bottom of the bills given to the patrons visiting his restaurant.
The wise crack of a message printed at the bottom of the Aditi restaurant’s bill had read thus: “As per UPA Govt eating money (2G Coal, CWG Scam) is a necessity & eating food in AC restaurant is a luxury”.
One of the regular patrons to the restaurant, who scanned one such bill, put the photograph on his Tweeter page on Monday morning. The photograph, which elicited multiple re-tweets, became a rage on the social media, triggering trouble for the restaurant owner.
Around 2.15 pm on Monday, a group of 30 to 40 agitated Mumbai Youth Congress workers led by president Ganesh Yadav and Congress MlA Kalidas Kolambkar — landed at the Aditi restaurant, along with the local police.
The police confiscated the rolls of the hotel bills that carried the allegedly defamatory message and registered a case against the restaurant owner Shetty under Section 501 of the IPC (printing or engraving matter known to be defamatory).
Section 501 of the IPC reads thus: “Whoever prints or engraves any matter, knowing or having good reason to believe that such matter is defamatory of any person, shall be punished with simple imprisonment for a term which may extend to two years, or with fine, or both”.
Even as Shetty fought shy of facing television cameras, Mumbai Youth Congress president Ganesh Yadav — who had organised what he called as a “peaceful” protest against the Aditi restaurant — went on the defensive, claiming that he and his supporters had not vandalised the eatery nor had they forced its owner to close down the establishment.
Yadav and supporters were also later in the evening booked for an offence under Section 37, read with Section 135 of the Bombay Police Act for unlawful Assembly and protest.
Talking to The Pioneer on Tuesday, Yadav said: “We neither vandalised the restaurant nor did we force its owner to shut shop. All we did was to stage a peaceful protest against the defamatory message printed on the hotel bills.”
“We went to the Bhoiwada police station, complained to the police about the restaurant owner’s defamatory act and took the police along with us to the hotel for immediate action. The owner himself downed the shutters. The restaurant reopened again at 7 pm. If we had vandalised the hotel, would it have reopened again the same eveningIJ” Yadav asked.
Queried as to what prompted him to take such a serious cognizance of mere wise crack of a message, Yadav defended his action, saying: “What the restaurant owner did was unlawful. The message that he printed was a false accusation that the UPA government indulged in corruption when all the alleged scams – 2G, Coal and CWG – are still pending before the concerned courts. No one has been convicted. Nor has any allegation been proved yet”.
On his part, Shetty was not unavailable for comment for the entire media excepting a leading afternoon paper. In an interview published in the afternoon tabloid “Mid-Day”, Shetty justified his action, saying: “I have my opinion and India being an independent country, I have the right to express my views. Because of the government including all AC eateries in its purview for paying service tax, I suffered losses and I had to shut down the AC section of my restaurant altogether”.
“It’s been 15 days since I got this thing printed on the bills, and many customers came and congratulated me over this. Since I had received praise for the act, I did not think something like this would come up. In fact, I had thought of this idea when the law enforcing service tax at all AC restaurants came out. I had wanted to do it since a long time and I did it,”Shetty added, as he wondered as to why he had become a target of the Youth Congress’ attack.
However, after Monday’s high-drama, the food bills issued by the Aditi restaurant to its patrons on Tuesday, did not carry the controversial message that mocked the UPA government.