A senior bank manager and his friend, in their police complaint filed on Monday, said they were shocked to find a piece of “rat meat” in the chicken dish they had ordered at Papa Pancho Da Dhaba at Pali Naka on Sunday night. Based on the complaint, Bandra police arrested the cooks and the manager who have been released on bail surety.
The alleged incident occurred around 10.15pm on Sunday when banker Anurag Singh (40) from Goregaon (East) and his friend Amin Khan (40) were dining at the eatery.
The cooks, Narayan Das and Sanjeev Kar, and manager Vivian Sequeira were booked under IPC sections for adulteration of food or drink intended for sale, an act endangering life or personal safety of others, and common intention. “The food plate in which the rat piece was found has been sent to the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for examination and the manager and cook were arrested,” said Bandra police senior inspector Sanjay Marathe.
Meanwhile, Sequeira told TOI it is an old restaurant and no such incident has occurred in the 22 years of its existence. “I was not at the restaurant when dinner was served. I was headed home but returned to attend to the query. The two customers were heavily drunk and the server spotted them consuming ‘miniatures’ (alcohol bottles) which they objected to since we do not serve alcohol. The two intentionally complained to extort money from us. The food is checked and microwaved so such a thing never happens.”
Devraj Gore, advocate for the restaurant, said the two were inebriated and had almost finished their dinner when they pointed to a rat and told the manager whether he would like to settle the matter and “tried to extort money. Later they approached the police. This has been done to tarnish the restaurant’s reputation which has not faced any complaint in 22 years”.
Tagging Mumbai police and TOI to his post on X (formerly Twitter) on Sunday, Khan wrote: “Rat found in our gravy at #papaPanchodadhaba near Pali naka Bandra West . No manager or owner is ready to listen . We called the police and 100 as well. No Help yet.”
A police officer said Singh and Khan filed a complaint after the restaurant manager allegedly failed to give them a proper explanation. Singh, who hails from Madhya Pradesh, had moved to Goregaon with his family seven months ago. On Sunday, he met Khan for dinner. Singh told TOI: “I went for a health checkup later.”
