Bhubaneswar, Aug 14: Excise department sleuths raided eight bars in Cuttack Road area on Saturday night and several bars in other areas in the city late on Sunday night.
The raids were conducted following the death of minor girl Subhalaxmi Sahoo, who was reportedly working as a bar dancer at Hotel Dipali International. Her hanging body was recovered from the hotel on August 4.
Also Read: Subhalaxmi death case: DCP confirms teenager committed suicide
Raids were conducted in several bars in Cuttack Road, Chandrasekharpur, and Patia in the city. The team checked the bar licenses along with the identity and address of girls deployed in bars as dancers. The main aim was to check the age of the girls and customer register, said Excise Inspector Bikash Nayak.
The excise department had earlier imposed 18 conditions for running the dance bars. Installation of CCTV cameras at appropriate places was made mandatory. No women below 21 years can be engaged as dancers and dancers will have to submit their voter identity card, Aadhaar card, photos, and other details to the bars. Besides, the performers were restricted from wearing body-exposing dresses. The customers should maintain a minimum distance of 5 feet from the performance stage and can not throw money at performers. However, many bars in the city are not following the prescribed guidelines. The raids were conducted to check the illegal activities, said an excise sleuth.
