What happened when a restaurant owner finally stood up to police ‘regulars’ who never paid for food

Taking a stand over a £4 meal almost cost the owner of a small eatery in northern India his freedom and reputation, Maroosha Muzaffar reports

The dhaba (canteen-style restaurant) owner was falsely accused of smuggling illicit liquor and drugs (Praveen Kumar Yadav, brother of the dhaba owner in Etah)

In early February, two policemen polished off a hearty afternoon meal at a small restaurant located on a dusty national highway connecting several states in northern India.

When Pushpender Kumar Yadav, the 34-year-old owner of the dhaba (roadside eatery ) in the Etah district of Uttar Pradesh, asked them to pay their bill of Rs 400 (£4), it resulted in what is being seen as one of the worst cases of police entitlement and misuse of power in recent times in India.

The policemen were enraged that Yadav asked them to pay in full for what they ate — a common occurrence in a country where police wield disproportionate power over the poor - that not only did they refuse to pay at Yadav’s Yaduvanshi Dhaba on the Agra road, but they allegedly beat him up, called for reinforcement, got him and at least nine others arrested.

The police also filed official complaints against them for supposedly possessing illicit liquor, cannabis and unlicensed guns.

The state police have accepted that Yadav has cause for grievance and suspended the officials involved in the incident, pending full investigation.

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Yet late last month, after more than 50 days in jail, his family toldThe Independent that he had still not been freed despite a bail application in the case being accepted. The incident has left the family reeling.

“Instead of paying the full amount, they handed us just 100 rupees and asked to keep only 80 rupees,” Yadav’s brother Praveen Kumar Yadav, 29, toldThe Independent from his home.

The Yadav brothers claim that the policemen beat them up, hurled abuse at them and with the help of colleagues — “they called 15-20 more policemen to the dhaba” — took them both into custody. Customers who got embroiled in the fight at the dhaba were also detained. 

The brothers say the policemen then tried to cover up their acts by falsely reporting the incident as a violent “encounter” where members of the public opened fire on the police. The brothers insist this is pure fabrication, and that no shots were ever fired.

When the family reported the matter, with local media picking up the story, senior police officials were finally alerted who then suspended one police inspector and two police constables — almost 40 days after Pushpender Kumar Yadav’s arrest. Police said they have ordered an inquiry.

“The case was totally false. They said that my brother was in possession of guns and cartridges and was trying to smuggle liquor and drugs. This isn’t what happened on 4 February,” the younger Yadav brother said.

He claimed that the two policemen were regulars at their dhaba but never paid for food. The Yadav family, who has been running the food stall on the Agra road for many years, is distraught. “We just want justice,” the younger Yadav brother said.

“If I was involved in any of the illegal work that the police accused me of, I would have been able to at least buy a house for my family. We still live in a rented house,” Pushpendra Kumar Yadav said. “It was difficult to make rent during the lockdown,” he said, adding that the landlord harassed them for payments they could not make during the pandemic.

The elder Yadav brother was working in Noida, a satellite city of Delhi, as an email marketer with a tech company before the lockdown. When the company announced a work-from-home policy, he had to give up the job because he couldn’t afford a laptop. So he returned to his village in Etah.

So far, police have said that the “serious allegations” against their officials are true and have since suspended the accused officers. Additional Director General of Agra zone Rajeev Krishna said in a statement said that: “Serious allegations were made against the then in-charge of the Kotwali Dehat Police Station. I asked the SP (Crime) of Etah to inquire and, prima facie, the allegations are being proved.”

Krishna added: “I have ordered the suspension of the involved personnel and anyone from the police found involved will be booked. The inquiry has been shifted out of Etah to Aligarh to ensure fairness.”

When a local TV channel reported on the case, the story struck a chord across a country where it was seen as being all too relatable, and there were widespread expressions of disgust.

Atul Kasbekar, a photographer and Bollywood producer, tweeted: “Unbelievable. The sheer arrogance to go this far being this vengeful cause some poor people eking out a meagre living asked the cops to pay for their meal. And then to throw in the slammer on assorted trumped charges others dining there. Sickening.”

Others praised the Yadav family for standing up to the men in uniform.

“It’s heartening that some common man can stand up to these government men in khaki! If all the public joins hands against such corrupt practices, this goondagiri [gangster rule] will stop!”

Uttar Pradesh, where Etah is located, has been dubbed the crime capital of India due to its high rates of violent crime. According to the latest figures from the National Crime Records Bureau, the state also leads the country in crimes against women. NCRB data says that every day in 2019, at least 163 cases against women were registered in the state.

Police have been accused of acting beyond their powers with impunity, particularly during the state’s crackdown on those protesting against new citizenship laws in late 2019. The NGO Karwan-e-Mohabbat, which held an unofficial tribunal led by former judges into the accusations, said Uttar Pradesh police killed 16 people during the protests and that seeking justice thereafter was particularly challenging.

The NGO’s jury said it was “convinced that the entire state machinery, led from the top, acted with grave prejudice and perpetrated violence targeting one particular community, the state’s Muslim population, and the social activists leading the movement”.

The family in Etah, meanwhile, is relieved that – in their case at least – their story has come out, though their ordeal may not be over. Yadav says the police have also provided security to the brothers following reports of threats he received in jail from local gang members.