GURGAON: The Gurgaon police on Sunday arrested a manager of a local pub, Buzz, for allegedly hosting a cocktail and hookah party in the premises. The police conducted a raid and rounded up over 100 school students (including both boys and girls), who had gathered there to attend the party, called 'Sex and Smoke.' A source said majority of the students are from prominent city schools.

All students are minors and they had pre-booked the place. The police have registered a case under Section 188 of the IPC. The police have written to the excise department for the cancellation of licence of the pub.

The raid was conducted by a police team led by DCP Maheshwar Dayal around 4pm, when the party was going on.

"They were serving liquor and hookah to minors. Hookah is banned altogether. The manager should not have allowed these children inside, let alone serve them. The club authorities, despite our clear instructions, made no efforts to check the age proof of the children. We have written to the excise department to take action against the pub and cancel their licence, as it had been served notice earlier as well," said Dayal

The children were let off after their parents were informed. A majority of parents said that they had been befooled by their children in name of a birthday party.

"Being consumers, they could not be hauled up, but on our part we called every single parent before letting the children leave. The parents claimed ignorance about their activities of their children," added Dayal.

"We have arrested the pub manager, identified as Anil Kumar , and will produced him in court on Monday. We have recovered three illegal hookahs from the bar," said inspector Hardeep Singh Hooda, the investigator and SHO, Sector 29 police station.

Meanwhile, parents of the students blamed police for the incident saying that it was because of their inefficiency that minors had got entry there. They had a huge row with DCP Maheshwar Dayal and than Dayal snubbed the parents saying that they should have ensured that their children had not got into underage drinking. Police can deal with club owners, but children were the responsibility of their parents.

Students thought it was birthday party

The alleged organizer of the student's party, called 'Sex and Smoke', is also a XI class student in an upmarket city school. After the party was busted by the police, he said the party was non-alcoholic and only for fun. However, some boys went up to the bar and ordered beer and the management of the establishment did not stop them.

Most of the students said they thought it was a birthday party. Later, they found out that it was a party for fun. The students paid Rs 600 per head for attending the party.

A student told TOI that his father is an officer in HUDA. He said one of his friends asked him to join the party and also asked him to invite his friends. He said he did not know the true nature of the party, otherwise he wouldn't have come.

A girl student said they come here thinking that it was a birthday party of one of their friends. She was surprised how the party turned out.

Another student, whom the others blamed to be the organizers of the party, said he did not organize the party, but only promoted it at the instance of his friends. He, however, agreed that he did book the pub.

