12 held for eatery ransack

TT, Alipurduar, Oct. 10: Twelve youths were arrested from Falakata last night after they refused to pay the food bill and ransacked an eatery.

Police said they got a call from the eatery on the Falakata-Alipurduar Road saying the youths, who were supposedly drunk, had ransacked it.

"We arrested all of them. They had damaged furniture and the cash counter," said A. Ravindranath, the superintendent of police, Alipurduar.

Eatery owner Prabir Kundu said when the waiter asked the youths to pay the bill "they started arguing with him".

According to Kundu, the youths told him that they had been overcharged. "Some of them were so drunk that they could not speak properly or even stand. We told them they had not been overcharged and they should pay and leave. Then they started ransacking our furniture and tried to snatch cash as well," Kundu said.

Charges of voluntarily causing hurt, theft and criminal intimidation have been slapped on the youths who are from Falakata, 40km from here, and its surrounding areas.