Hotel staff set ablaze Army officer's car in Lucknow for complaining over loud music

Major Abhijeet Singh of Vishal Khand, who is part of a UN troop deployed in Sudan, lodged a complaint naming the hotel owner, its manager and eight unidentified staff of hotel Milano and Cafe in the area

In a shocking incident, the hotel staff, its owner and manager, set afire the car of a serving Army Major for opposing the loud music tracks which the accused were playing at the roof of the hotel in Gomti Nagar.

Major Abhijeet Singh of Vishal Khand, who is part of a UN troop deployed in Sudan, lodged a complaint naming the hotel owner Rahul, its manager Shivam Singh and eight unidentified staff of hotel Milano and Cafe in the area.

Major Singh is on a Lucknow visit to see his parents. Abhijeet told reporters that he heard loud music and people screaming at the roof of the hotel which is allegedly being run illegally in the residential area late in the night.

"I patiently waited for the good sense to prevail over them before asking them to lower the volume around 11.30 p.m. as it was making me and my old parents and other residents uncomfortable," he said in his FIR.

One of the participants came down and agreed to stop the music, but he did not do the same. After waiting for nearly an hour, Abhijeet called the police control room around 12.22 a.m.

"When the police team visited the scene, they stopped playing the music. However, in 20 minutes they again started playing it again, forcing me to dial the police control room again," said Abhijeet.

"This time, all the above-named persons surrounded me in the presence of policemen and pushed me to the side to show their might. They told me that they know my house and asked me to be ready to face the consequences," the victim said.

Car fire — (Representative Image)Wikimedia Common

He said that he ignored their threat, thinking the police would deal with them.

"Around 3 a.m., I heard some sound near my car which I had parked outside my house. I came out of the house to see my car up in flames. I dialled the police control. By the time the fire was doused, the car was damaged," he said.

Additional DCP, East Zone, Syed Ali Abbas said five of the miscreants identified as Shivam Pratap Singh, Shubham Singh and Rishabh Singh all of Pratapgarh, Krishna Singh of Jaunpur and Saurabh Srivastava of Rae Bareli have been arrested.

"We have written to the LDA against the illegal hotel being run in the residential area," he said.

(With inputs from IANS)