Police with detained youths after a raid on a cyber café in Patna on Tuesday. Picture by Deepak Kumar

Patna, March 8: Two weeks after coming out with guidelines for cyber cafés, police today raided four establishments and detained 30 youths allegedly in “compromising position”, scaring innocent net-savvy youngsters.

The rule-abiding cyber café owners were also visibly unhappy over the crackdown.

“Some cafés may be allowing their customers to indulge in immoral activities but not all. Most of the cafés follow the regulations,” said the owner of a cyber café in Kankerbagh.

The owner added that sudden police raids adversely affected business. “Customers fear sudden raids. As a result, their numbers have declined. The police must first inspect the cafés. Raids can follow after that. Why trouble cafés that are following rules?” he said.

Gaurav, a college student, said: “This is scary. What if I am sitting in a café with a friend and the police barge in? Will I have a chance to explain? There needs to be a proper law and system for such raids.”

Cops, however, claimed they were only following the rules.

City superintendent of police Shivdeep Lande, who led the operation, told The Telegraph: “Raids were carried out to check if the cyber cafés were complying with the directives given by the police. The cafés, which were raided, were not complying with the directives.”

Three cafés at Gorakhpur Complex on Boring Road and one in Kulhariya Complex on Ashok Rajpath got a surprise a visit from the cops.

Lande said the detained youths were let off with a warning.

A source said in many of the cafés, there were no computers. In one of them, there were beds, alcohol bottles and contraceptives. The cabins in the café were dark.

“We had information about these cafés,” said a police officer.

On February 24, the police had come up with a number of dos and don’ts for cyber cafés in the city after receiving information that many of them were operating as “fun joints” for couples.

Lande said the cyber cafés need to follow the regulations.

“They have to record the name of customers and check their identities. It is an important security step. Operations of cafés need to be transparent,” said Lande.