HYDERABAD: Telangana's Prohibition and Excise department on Monday cancelled the bar licence of Pudding and Mink Pub, even as Abhishek Vuppala, who is a partner in the pub, and Mahadaram Anil Kumar, the manager of the establishment, were produced before a court and sent to judicial remand.
Orders cancelling the licence were issued after Excise Minister V Srinivas Goud took a serious note of the drugs bust and directed Excise officials to initiate strict action against the pub. Meanwhile, Kiran Raju, son-in-law of former Union Minister and senior Congress leader Renuka Chowdhury has been named an accused in the case and efforts are on to take him into custody.
Earlier, Renuka Chowdhury issued a statement stating that her daughter Tejuswini Chowdhury was not the owner of the pub and neither was she involved in the management of the establishment.
Police have also filed a petition before the court seeking custody of Abhishek Vuppala and Anil Kumar for further questioning to identify the source of the drugs and also those to whom the contraband was supplied at the pub.
Police have also started gathering evidence to verify if any guests had consumed drugs at the party. They collected CCTV footage from the pub, but due to the lighting system used, including decorative and strobe lights, in the jam-packed 50 x 30 feet space, the visuals are not clear.
Police are now relying on other technical aspects to dig deep into how the seized drugs made their way into the pub.
Investigators told The New Indian Express that during the searches at the pub, they found certain documents, indicating Kiran Raju is also associated with the pub management. Moreover, the arrested accused too, in their confession, admitted that Kiran Raju was associated with them.
"Based on their confession, he has been named an accused and is charged with abetting the offence. Further investigation is underway, to know his actual role in the pub and its activities. If we get any indication of his role, he will face action as per the law," the investigators told The New Indian Express.
Along with Kiran Raju, efforts are on to nab Arjun Veeramachineni, who is also associated with the pub.
Meanwhile, police who had already seized 4.6 grams of cocaine, clove powder, herbal powder, table salts, over 200 cigarette buds and other material from the pub, sent them for forensic analysis.
However, samples were not drawn from any of the persons present at the pub during the raid, including the arrested accused. "Without any evidence about them consuming drugs, their samples cannot be collected. We are verifying other aspects too and if anybody is found to be involved or to have consumed drugs, they will be identified and their samples will be collected for further investigation," investigators said.
Police officials hope that a thorough interrogation of the accused in custody might reveal more details about the supply, consumption, etc. Further, a probe is on to check if any of the customers or the pub staff were directly or indirectly in touch with any old offenders or known or unknown drug peddlers.
Based on this outcome, the customers who were at the pub at the time of the raid will be called for interrogation if needed, the officials said.