LUCKNOW: A group of men, including a hotel staff, its owner and manager, set afire the car of a serving army major for opposing the high decibel music tracks which the accused were playing at the roof of the hotel on Sunday night in Gomtinagar.

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 Café in the area.

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 am.

“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,” Abhijeet said.

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

“Around 3am, I heard the sound of the window pane of my car which I had parked outside my house. I came out of the house to see my car up in flames. I dialed the police control. By the time the fire was doused, the car was damaged,” he said.

ADCP, 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 were arrested. “We have written to the LDA against the illegal hotel being run in the residential area,” he said.

Lucknow Development Authority Zonal Officer Arun Kumar Singh told PTI, "When a development authority team went to conduct a probe, it was found that commercial activities were taking place in a residential area through the hotel."

Singh added that the operators could not provide a map of the hotel. Some illegal construction was also done in the hotel.

Hotel Milano and Cafe was sealed on Tuesday and a showcause notice served to the operators, Singh added.

The car of an Army Major was allegedly set ablaze by a group of men after he objected to playing of loud music at a hotel in Vishal Khand area of Gomtinagar on Monday, police had said earlier.

Five people have been arrested in the case, they said, adding that efforts were being made to trace the sixth accused.

Additional DCP (East) Ali Abbas on Monday said a case had been registered against two staff members of the hotel and four other men at Gomtinagar police station.

Hotel Milano Cafe is located near the residence of Major Abhijit Singh. Late on Sunday night, the DJ was being played in a loud manner. When the Army officer asked the hotel staff to stop the music, they refused and an argument ensued.
Later, the music was stopped following police intervention.

In a complaint submitted to the police, Singh said he returned home after the music was stopped and went off to sleep. Around 3.30 am on Monday, he saw fire in the portico of his house and subsequently saw his car burning. By the time he could extinguish the fire, the car was completely burnt.

DCP Abbas said the complainant had come home on leave.

"The Major complained that some youths broke the glass of his car and set it ablaze," he said.

The police and fire brigade immediately reached the spot and the fire was controlled.

"Five people were arrested from a nearby hotel in Hussainganj police station area and further investigation is on," Abbas had said.

PTI