Ashoke Pandit: ex-top cop told me to ease off JVPD eatery

Filmmaker and Censor Board member Ashoke Pandit, who is a resident of Juhu-Vile Parle Development Scheme (JVPD), has claimed that ex-top cop and Bharatiya Janata Party MP Satyapal Singh has told him not to lead citizens' action against a local fast-food joint.

Pandit said local residents oppose the fact that the fast-food joint has managed to get permission from the police to remain open up to 3 am. They object to the juice centre allegedly taking over the footpath, and cooking food in the open; and to vehicles parking in front of the fast-food joint and blocking traffic.

Pandit, among others, is trying to get these complaints against the Amar Juice Centre addressed for over a decade.

However, Satyapal Singh refuted all the allegations levelled by Pandit. Singh told dna that he never told Ashoke Pandit not to trouble the juice centre owner. "I have never pressurised him. I guess this is a big misunderstanding. I never spoke about the juice centre," said Singh.

Pandit said, "He (Singh) told me not to 'trouble' the juice shop owner."

Tushar Joshi, owner of Amar Juice Centre, claimed that the police had given him a special license to operate at late hours, along with 25 other hotel owners. "I have been given a special license since there is a hospital and a post-mortem centre nearby. This is the only place for patients' relatives to get water and food," said Joshi.

"This is not even a residential area, and even the traffic department has no objection to us. Why should BMC and police not have given me the license," Joshi argued.