Mid-Day

Mumbai, Mar 1: Samir Khan (23) was celebrating his birthday with 15 friends at the Aarey Garden Restaurant, Goregaon, last night, when the group was beaten up over non-payment of the bill.

The group wound up by midnight, paid the Rs 1,600 bill and were about to leave when the waiter rushed out saying there was a shortfall of Rs 12 in the bill.

The boys refused, saying they had paid the entire amount, and within seconds the waiter and other staff beat them up.

While Khan was hit on the head, his friends, Shibu Warghese (22), Ajit Nair (22), Ashish Egralkar (23) and Atul Patil (21), were badly assaulted by the men with stones, bricks and sticks.

 
Samir Khan (with bandaged head) at the Aarey police station on Tuesday night. Pic: Sameer Markande

Waiters arrested

After the incident, the boys called their friends, who rushed them to Cooper Hospital. Then they lodged a complaint at the Aarey police station.

Said Police Inspector V Wankhede of Aarey police station, “We will conduct an enquiry, but these incidents happen and we need to find out who’s in the wrong.”

Warghese, Khan’s friend, had to get 17 stitches on his head. “They picked up a fight, even though it was not our fault,” said Warghese.

Added Chandramohan, the hotel’s manager, “I was not in the hotel at the time of the incident. and neither was there any other manager. There must have been a misunderstanding between the groups.”