Illegal bar busted, cops say run mostly for Chinese nationals
noida: Police in Uttar Pradesh's Greater Noida have busted an illegal luxury bar being run in a clandestine manner with Chinese nationals living in India as its major patrons, officials said on Thursday.
The three-storey facility, located in Gharbara village with its interiors designed in traditional Chinese-style, was busted on Tuesday night, close on the heels of the arrest of a Chinese national who had been living in India illegally since 2020, a senior official said.
"Everything in the facility was designed in Chinese style. Its bar and restaurant had items mentioned in Chinese script with no mark of Hindi or English anywhere. It is suspected that illegal activities like drug abuse were also being carried out there," the official, privy to the probe, told.
"The three-storey building mostly had Chinese nationals as frequent visitors and guests. Among the Indians, some people from Northeast have also been found to be patrons of this facility, which was being run in a clandestine manner in the village in Greater Noida," the official added.
No arrest was made from the spot, though the police said the investigation into the whole episode has widened with central government agencies and those specialising in dealing with foreigners.
When contacted, Gautam Buddh Nagar excise department officials confirmed that the facility did not have any license to serve liquor.
"They had applied for occasional party license but that was in the past. No license permit was sought by them in recent times," an excise officer added.
Chinese national Xue fei aka Kelay, 36, and his Indian girlfriend Petekhrinuo, 22, who hails from Nagaland, were arrested from a hotel in Gurugram, Haryana, by UP's Gautam Buddh Nagar Police on Monday.
They were held on the basis of information given by two Chinese nationals, who were arrested on Nepal-India border in Bihar on Saturday last week by the Sashastra Seema Bal (SSB) as they were trying to cross over into the Himalayan nation after staying in India illegally, the police said.
