Patna, Aug. 9: On the backfoot for allegedly trying to push moral policing a bit too far, police today clarified that the raid on Om Vihar Restaurant was on the basis of a tip-off given by the public.

Personnel from the Kadamkuan police station had raided the plush restaurant, known for its cabin seating arrangement, last evening and had detained 10 youths, five girls and boys each. The youths were detained at the police station the entire night with the police stating that investigation was on. They were set free this morning.

Claiming to have done nothing wrong, the youths were having food when the police took them away. Speaking to The Telegraph, the deputy superintendent of police (town), Sheela Irani, said the youths had assembled there to sort out a serious issue related to blackmailing. “We never detained them without a reason. One of the boys in the cabin tipped us off that the group were armed and were plotting a murder. So we rushed there,” the officer said.

At the police station, the youths kept on claiming that all of them were merely friends. The police had allegedly suspected them to be engaged in dubious activities.

“We have to question people. Unless we investigate the case, we cannot simply charge someone with something. The questioning was a part of this investigation,” she said.

The officer said one of the girls, a Kendriya Vidyalaya student, revealed during questioning that her ex-boyfriend was blackmailing her. He had managed to take obscene photographs of her on his cellphone and was demanding Rs 5,000 to return the pictures to her.

“The girl narrated her plight to her present boyfriend. Thereafter, the couple, along with their friends, fixed up a meeting with her ex-boyfriend to settle the affair. All of them met at the restaurant yesterday, while the girl’s present boyfriend waited outside in a car. He wanted to see the boy who was blackmailing the girl. The blackmailer got to know of this, and in panic, apprised the police that a group of armed people were trying to murder him, triggering off the raid,” the DSP said.

The officer said: “The restaurant has a cabin seating system with dim lights and curtains. The rate of a cabin where you can order vegetarian food is Rs 230 per hour. For booking a non-vegetarian food cabin, the rate is Rs 280. Why should there be such a system? There is always a chance of something fishy going on in the cabins.”

Irani said none of the youths’ parents tried to find out their whereabouts the entire night. “In the morning, I started talking to them and apprised their families. Some of them were hostel boarders. The police took steps just because we did not want the girls to get exploited,” she said.