An incident has come to light from Kolkata where the employees of a restaurant attacked the customers with sharp knives and rods during a spat. Jenifer Kirti Desai, sister of one of the victims, posted details of the incident on her Instagram account with photos and videos of injured victims.
According to her post, the incident took place on the night of December 26. Her 23-year-old brother Nand Desai, his 23-year-old friend Navneet Soni, Vinayak Choubey and one of Nand’s relatives had visited Karim’s restaurant located at Aurobindo Sarani for dinner at around 11:15 PM. As it was closing time, the restaurant staff demanded full payment before serving the food, which they did. The food that was served to them was cold. When they complained to the waiter, he allegedly said that they could only serve the food like that post-closing time.
While eating the food, they requested the waiter to bring some extra onions that was denied by the waiter. Nand and his friends requested the waiter that they do not mind paying extra with the tip. Speaking to OpIndia, Jenifer said, “When they said they do not mind paying extra, the waiter got irked and started abusing. He told them he did not care for money and could feed them for free. Nand did not like the way he was talking and told the waiter that they were not eating food for free.”
Meanwhile, the relative approached the manager and questioned why the employee was misbehaving. The relative got quite angry and left the premises. From the outside, he called up Nand’s father and told him the whole ordeal that had happened till he left the premises.
She added, in the restaurant, the spat between her brother and employees got uglier. “During the argument, the waiter got very close to them. My brother pushed him a little and told him not to come too close. That was the point when my brother turned and told Navneet that they should leave the premises as things were getting out of hand. At this moment, someone from behind the waiter came and hit my brother with a sharp knife. Navneet, who saw Nand falling down, tried to save him and pushed the waiter and other employees. During that time, he was hit as well with a sharp knife and iron rods.”
Jenifer said that by that time, Nand tried to get up and got hit again. “They were in a half-conscious state when the employees of Karim’s grabbed them from their collars and threw them out of the restaurant. There are three stairs outside Karim’s from where they both fell down.” She added, Nand somehow managed to get up and brought Navneet home. Nand’s family rushed them to the nearest hospital, where they got the first aid. From there, they were taken to RG Kar Medical College and Hospital as the cuts were deep and needed a specialist surgeon to get the stitches done. During that time, Nand’s bleeding did not stop.
“The doctor at the hospital tried to stop the bleeding, but an artery was ruptured, causing continuous bleeding. A surgeon was called immediately, and it took him an hour to stop the bleeding and close the wound. My brother got 13 stitches. Navneet also got multiple injuries and two cuts on the head,” she added.
‘Police did not cooperate at first’
Jenifer claimed that initially, Police did not cooperate, and they had to run from pillar to post to get the FIR registered. “After getting them treated, we went to Burtolla Police Station to file the complaint. By the time we reached, the Police were already contacted by Karim’s. The Police officer told us that they got the whole story from Karim’s, and it was my brother and his friends who initiated the fight. He also alleged that my brother and his friends were drinking.”
When Jenifer argued with the Police officer, he did not pay heed to what she was saying and asked her to take care of her brother. “It was only the next day [December 28] that the FIR was registered. I don’t know if the Police will investigate the case properly or not.”
Details of FIR
According to the copy of FIR accessed by OpIndia, Jawed Akhtar, Asif Karim Siddique, Pradip Dey, Paritosh Kumar Mondal, Sudip Pant and others have been named as accused. The FIR has been registered under Sections 326 (Voluntarily causing grievous hurt by dangerous weapons or means) and 114 (Abettor present when offence is committed) of the Indian Penal Code. Notably, offences under Section 326 are cognizable and non-bailable.
The FIR does not contain the details of the incident but only mention that the accused caused grievous injuries to the complainant and his friend.
Jenifer, who recently lost her mother, broke down while talking to OpIndia. She said, “I am not denying that my brother used foul language or fought back in retaliation. But it is not fair to attack someone over a petty argument.”
The restaurant has also shared some CCTV videos and shared in an Instagram story that the customers had behaved very rudely with their staff members. They have also claimed that the said customers were drinking from their own water bottles that ‘contained alcohol’ and they were ‘surreptitiously drinking from those bottles’. The restaurant, however, has not shared any footage of the violent altercations which left the customers injured.
Karim’s have stated in the post that they have lodged an FIR against the said customers for violently attacking their staff and injuring them.
