KOCHI: No 18 Hotel, which recently courted controversy for drug and sexual abuse, is situated just a few yards from Fort Kochi police station. But no city police officer had dared to knock on the doors of this famous weekend partying destination of the city’s uber rich until the car accident death of two models on November 1, 2021.
Alarmingly, a probe that followed the accident has revealed that all sorts of drugs including MDMA and cocaine have increasingly been becoming a conspicuous part of the night parties at the hotel. Though a joint operation by customs and excise in March 2021 had exposed the drug abuse by party-goers on the hotel premises, the case didn’t make much headway.
It is alleged that hotel managing director Roy J Vayalat, who is also a major real-estate businessman, wields big influence in the high echelons of police department and that a few senior police officers used to frequent the hotel where a room was allotted to offer “exquisite” services to the “VIP guests”.
However, things haven’t been that easy for Vayalat after the death of models Miss South India Ansi Kabeer and Miss Kerala 2019 first runner-up Anjana Shajan in the accident. The revelations of a Kozhikode-based YouTuber who had come out with a complaint alleging that Vayalat had molested her 17-year-old daughter at a party held in the hotel on October 20, 2021, had exposed the illegal activities that had been taking place at the hotel right under the nose of the city police.
Her statements had thrown light on the sinister activities that had been taking place at the hotel where minor girls were allegedly brought by a Kozhikode-based entrepreneur identified as Anjali Rema Dev for party nights. Though Anjali, who has been booked under Pocso Act along with Roy and his aide Shaiju Thankachan, refuted the allegation saying that the complaint was fabricated, the police seemed to have stumbled on some strong evidence against the accused.
Kochi City Police Deputy Commissioner U V Kuriakose said there was evidence against Roy, Shaiju and Anjali in the Pocso case. “We have received clinching evidence against the accused persons. We have also received more information about the nature of parties at Hotel No 18,” he said.
Despite all serious allegations against the hotel after the accident, the excise department reinstated its bar licence after carrying out a lackadaisical inquiry, which did not even recommend licence cancellation. It was on November 2 the hotel’s bar licence was suspended after a probe found that the hotel violated various rules.
“Around Rs 1.5 lakh to Rs 2 lakh was imposed as a fine for three of four violations found in the inquiry. Roy Vayalat paid the penalty amount after which the hotel was permitted to serve liquor,” an excise source said. A senior excise official, however, said, “We are closely watching the activities at the hotel. We can only take action when strong evidence emerges. We had carried out a raid on the hotel even before the death of models and action was taken against it based on the report,” said Deputy Excise Commissioner P V Elias.
The police are planning to initiate steps to cancel Roy’s bail in the models’ accident death case as he had failed to comply with a bail condition of appearing before the police officer at the respective police station every week. It is learnt from police sources that he had submitted a medical certificate for not turning up at the police station.