Kochi: The Excise Department arrested the manager of the Fly High Bar situated at the Harbour View here which is touted as "Kerala's first pub", on the charge of employing women to serve liquor to customers.
The bar hotel employed a group of foreign women for serving liquor at the inaugural function of the renovated bar on March 12.
The case was also registered against the bar for fudging the stock register. The bar manager was later let off on bail.
The hotel owners said that women were deployed to serve liquor on the basis of a High Court order. Their justification was that since there was no permission for running a pub in the State, only on the inaugural day, the liquor was served by women as a special case.
But the Excise Department clarified that such an HC order was applicable only to a bar hotel in Thiruvananthapuram.
The Excise Commissioner has ordered a detailed probe into the supply of liquor by women at the bar.
The bar hotel even announced that DJ parties will be held in the coming weeks on certain dates. Entry into DJ parties will be allowed only after the payment of a fixed fee.
The bar hotel insists that those who enter the bar should submit their ID-cards at the counter. It also has deployed bouncers at the entrance of the bar.
What put Fly High Bar in trouble was that they experimented with the rules applicable for pubs even before the Kerala Government gave approval for opening pubs in the State.
