HYDERABAD: It was all in the open and nothing seemed to be hidden. When the Task Force personnel conducted a pre-dawn raid on Pudding & Mink pub attached to Radisson Blu hotel in Banjara Hills, they found five grams of cocaine kept right on top of the bartender table hidden among the stirrers.
The entry to the customers was given by the pub establishment after registering them on an app and verified with an OTP. Initially, the pub staff allegedly pretended that there was no contraband. But during the searches the police found tiny sachets and thus the drug racket was busted.
The police alleged that Abhishek Vuppala, one of the two partners of Pudding & Mink, has been known for hosting parties to socialites and celebrities.
It was in August 2021 he and another person, Arjun Veeramachineni, took over the management of the pub reportedly from the daughter of a former union minister. Many of the persons, who were present in the party, are said to be known to Abhishek. “When the raid was conducted, Abhishek was present inside the pub. The other business partner is presently in Kolkata and we will question him after he returns,” a senior police official told TOI.
General manager of the pub Anil Kumar has been made accountable for availability of drugs on the bartender table, said deputy commissioner of police (West Zone) Joel Davis. Anil did not cooperate when the police questioned him to know the source of the contraband.
The police said that the business establishment has a round the-clock permission to serve liquor. However, it can serve liquor after midnight only to customers, who stay in the hotel, but not to outsiders. They cannot even sell food to the outsiders. But on Saturday night, the reality was that loud sound was being played by a DJ. Liquor, dance and food was being served. All this was happened in a small place, which was jampacked with nearly 150 members.
Senior officials said that there were CCTV cameras but so far they did not provide any lead to pinpoint the abusers. Most of the customers, who came to the pub, entered the premises between 11 pm on Saturday and 1 am on Sunday. By this time, the other pubs in the city had closed their business.
