HYDERABAD: Country Club in Begumpet has made the news for the wrong reasons again. The owners of Club Tollywood, a club within the property, were taken into custody during the wee hours of Saturday for allegedly permitting their customers to carry out obscene acts.
The owners, N Venu Gopal and Sai Baradwaz, have been charged under Section 294 (sing, recite or utter any obscene song, ballad or words, in or near any public place) of the IPC. A total of 33 customers and nine women who were staging obscene acts were taken into custody and handed over to the Punjagutta police for further investigation.
Earlier, a club named High Five Sky Lounge existed at the place where Club Tollywood now stands, whose owner Murali Krishna was charged with attempt-to-murder for assaulting two customers.
A woman, along with her brother-in-law, met Murali to request CCTV footage of a man who had misbehaved with her at the club. However, Murali refused to give them the footage and instead, assaulted the duo.
Club notorious, say cops
Activities akin to those at a strip club were being carried out at Club Tollywood within Country Club, according to the police.
The West Zone task force had received credible information about obscene activities taking place in the club, which led to a raid on the club. The police said women employees of the club, who were reportedly acquaintances of the owners, would lure male customers and allow them to touch their private parts. The women were reportedly being paid Rs 1,000 per day for the same.
CI Niranjan Reddy said, “The management frequently changes because of such activities at the club. After the attack on a women customer by the then owner, a plea was filed with the Collector and an affidavit was given stating that such incidents won’t be repeated, after which the new club opened a month ago.”
“The club was previously also known as Lisbon Restobar, and it was also found to be involved in similar activities in 2016, 2017, 2019, and 2020. An investigation is being carried out to detect if the pub management is directly involved in paying the women employees and allowing them to approach male customers,” the CI added.