FP Investigation: Gurgaon pubs scorn police directives

Gurgaon: Two days after the Haryana Police banned bouncers, escorts and stag entry in pubs, Firstpost visited pubs in Gurgaon’s Sahara Mall to find out how and what the police was doing to implement the ban and how seriously the pub owners were taking the police’s directions.

The victim of 12 March gang-rape was abducted from outside this Mall, which falls in the area known as ‘bar mines’ due to the array of watering holes here. We discovered that the police’s assurances are a mere eyewash. Here is what the Firstpost team found…

The third floor of the mall houses four pubs. At the entrance of each pub, there were at least two bouncers at the counter. None of the pubs had replaced bouncers with security guards. There was police presence outside the pubs in the form of a Haryana police constable. Shockingly, I saw him casually chatting with the bouncers. If this is known as coming down heavily on the rule breakers, then he certainly was doing his job.

When we asked one of the pub’s staff if the cop’s presence would disturb the party, he said “to f*#$ with the cop. You tell me what you want.” Such is the police’s fear in Gurgaon.

The staff told us that the cop was here to ensure that the pubs shut by 12 am. “This is only for a few days. Things will be back to normal,” said a bouncer, inviting us to ‘enjoy the party’.

“But stag entry is banned, right?”, I asked. “Sir, it is an open entry for Rs 500. You are welcome,” is the truth about the ban on stag entry.

To know if anything had changed inside the pubs due to the so-called police crackdown, we first visited the pub where the gang-rape victim used to work. The DJ was the only one dancing here. As visitors, there was only a group of four, which seemed like two couples. The all-male staff was watching the news - model Nupur Mehta speaks about her relationship with cricket bookie.

“There is no fun here…no crowd?” I shout in the ear of one of the waiters. “Aaj kal crowd thoda kam ho gaya hai (these days the crowd has reduced),” he says, referring to and not talking about the gang-rape.

Many articles in the print media mentioned the name of this pub — perhaps a reason why Gurgaon is avoiding it. In the 60 minutes we spent there, the dance floor remained empty but for the bouncer who was tapping his left foot. There was no emotion at all on his face.

We went to the adjoining pub, to check if it was also drawing less crowd. But, the scene there was a picture in contrast to what we found in the previous pub. There was business as usual and it looked like a usual pub. The theory ‘before and after the gang-rape’ did not apply here.

And what about the ban on escorts?

“Sir, Rs 500 for a dance. Rest of the charges she will tell you,” I am told.