Drunk woman, pals bash fellow customers at hotel

HYDERABAD: A businesswoman was arrested along with her friends for bashing fellow customers allegedly in an inebriated condition at a hotel in Somajiguda late on Saturday night.The 26-year woman, Shaik Shabnam of Somajiguda, along with four other friends, partied late into the night at a star hotel at Somajiguda and from there went to another hotel in the same area around 1 a.m to have dinner. She had been drunk by then.While waiting for food to be served, the woman called up a person over her mobile phone and, during the conversation, took the names of some Mumbai-based gangsters and claimed that she knew them.Another group of customers, sitting at a nearby table, overheard the conversation and laughed amongst themselves, perhaps over her boasting.Enraged, she picked an argument with them. Sensing trouble, the other group hurried up paying the bill and leaving the place but the woman allowed nothing of the sort.She obstructed them and was again engaged in a heated argument with them.Suddenly, she whipped out her belt and began lashing them. Members of the other group tried to shove the woman and escape when her friends burst on the scene and bashed them.Following hotel management’s complaint to the police control room, Punjagutta policemen rushed to the hotel and arrested the woman and two of her friends, Rehan of Mehdipatnam and Yousuf Khan of Masab Tank.Two others fled the place.The three were arrested under Section 324 (voluntarily causing hurt) on the basis of a complaint lodged by one of the victims, Subhanshu Sharma, and a hunt has been launched to nab the absconding Feroz and Shabbir, for their involvement in the attack., Punjagutta police subinspector P Nagaiah said.