Rare are the days when Union Minister Smriti Irani is not in the news, mostly for the controversy. Yet again there are the news of her daughter getting the bar licence in the name of a deceased.
Smriti Irani’s daughter ZOish, who owns SIlly Souls Cafe and Bur in North Goa acquired the renewal of a liquor licence on the basis of “fraudulent and fabricated documents”.
As per the complaint filed by lawyer Aires Rodrigues, the person on whose name the licence has been renewed has deceased long ago. After the complaint, a formal show cause notice has been issued to the cafe by Goa’s excise commissioner, Narayan M. Gad.
“The licence was renewed last month, despite the licence holder having passed away on 17/05/2021,” the show cause notice said.
The application for renewal of license was made on June 22, 2022 in the name of Anthony Dgama, while the later has passed away last year in the month of May.
Zoish, has hit the headlines for the controversial manner in which it acquired the renewal of a liquor licence in the name of a person long deceased.On July 21, Goa’s excise commissioner, Narayan M. Gad, issued a show cause notice to Silly Souls Cafe and Bar run by Zoish Irani based on a complaint filed by lawyer Aires Rodrigues, who said that “fraudulent and fabricated documents were produced” to acquire the liquor licence.
the application for the renewal of the licence was made in the name of Anthony Dgama on June 22, 2022, though Dgama had died in May the previous year. The application “was signed by someone on behalf of the licence holder with an undertaking that ‘please renew this licence for the year 2022-23 and will transfer the said licence within six months,’” the excise department said.
A hearing in the matter has been fixed for July 29.
Rodrigues, who managed to lay his hands on the documents through an RTI application, said he wants “a thorough inquiry into this mega fraud orchestrated by the Union minister’s family in conjunction with excise officials and the local Assagao panchayat.”
Adding to it, Silly Souls Cafe and Bar got a licence for foreign liquor and another one for Indian-made foreign liquor and country liquor in February last year, even before the posh outlet had a restaurant licence to operate which is against the excise rules of Goa, which clearly states that a bar licence should be issued only to an existing restaurant.
Anthony Dgama, in whose name, the application was made used to reside in Vile Parle, Mumbai as per his Aadhar Card details and it is quite wondering how can such person own a cafe spread on 1200 square metres of land Bhouta Vaddo, Assagao.
Interestingly, once Zoish Irani said in YouTube segment with food critic Kunal Vijaykar that Silly Souls would become the “food destination” of Goa for the huge tourist hub.
