In a shocking incident, a prominent restaurant in Connaught Place has allegedly denied to serve food to unprivileged children accompanied by a woman, prompting the Delhi Government to order an enquiry. Meanwhile, the owner of the restaurant has refuted charges of discrimination against the underprivileged children and alleged that “aggressive woman” demanded that food be served free of cost to them.
Sonali Shetty, a writer, who has lodged the case against the Shiv Sagar restaurant in Connaught Place, said, “I had taken eight underprivileged children for lunch at Shiv Sagar restaurant but the staff there refused to serve us. I was also ridiculed and told to keep out of the restaurant. They told me and the children to vacate the premises immediately as it is their right to serve whoever they want.
“They also threatened to shoot me if I didn’t leave the premises. The owner discriminated against the kids and refused service saying they weren’t well dressed and were dirty.”
Terming the whole incident as a “failure” of society, Sonali, who is the wife of an Armyman, said that she protested outside the eatery for over 10 hours but nothing happened. She also alleged that the policemen who had come to the restaurant on her call also did not help her and instead “reprimanded” her and asked her to take the children to some other place.
Expressing distress at the incident, Delhi’s Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia on Sunday termed the incident as an example of typical “colonial mindset” and said that if the allegations against the restaurant are found true, its licence will be cancelled.
“The woman is saying that she wanted to celebrate her husband’s birthday by spending time with the street children and feeding them. She was made to wait for two hours and was not served food and was thrown out later. This is very inhumane,” Sisodia said. “I have called on the District Magistrate (New Delhi) to give me a report in 24 hours” he added.
Meanwhile, Vihur Kanodia, the owner of Shiv Sagar restaurant, said, “We do not discriminate against anybody. We give service to everyone. But if someone enters the restaurant and behaves aggressively, then we can’t give service. This is exactly what happened. She was very aggressive. She wanted free food and we denied it.”
Stating that the incident has been captured in the CCTV footage and investigation is going on into the same, Kanodia said, “When we denied giving her free food, she said she was ready to pay. She came in the restaurant and you can see how her behaviour changed in 15-30 minutes,” he added.
However, one of the staffers of Shiv Sagar restaurant contradicted the stand of owner. He stated that they had permitted the children to enter but refused service later as they were creating a ruckus inside and disturbing the other customers.
“It is completely untrue that we denied entry to the children, as we have it on record that we allowed them to sit inside. We also never said that we won’t provide service to the children. But then the kids were making a lot of noise, tossing things around and creating a commotion. As a restaurateur, I have the right to deny service to someone who disturbs other customers,” said Roma Malhotra, staffer of the restaurant.
Meanwhile, following the directions of the Deputy CM, the New Delhi district magistrate visited the restaurant on Sunday morning and questioned its staff. “The DM asked the waiters and other staff of the restaurant about the Friday incident and noted it down,” said a restaurant staff member. The DM has also collected CCTV footage and other relevant evidence.