Patna, April 29: Police today ordered the arrest of The Panache hotel owner Dilip Kumar and its general manager Pranav Kumar on charges of allowing a group of people to consume liquor inside the establishment.

Seven men, all businessmen, had been arrested on Tuesday from a hotel room (number 308) where they had been drinking alcohol, banned all over the state since April 5.

After taking the men into custody, the police had gone ahead and filed an FIR under Section 63 of the Bihar Excise (Amendment) Act of 2016 against the hotel management, including the owner, holding them guilty of not informing the law-keepers.

Section 63 of the amended excise Act, cleared by the Assembly last month, says that "whoever, being a licensee under this Act and having the control or use of any house, room, enclosure, space, animal or conveyance, knowingly permits it to be used for commission by any other person of an offence punishable under any provision of this Act, shall be punishable in the same manner as if he had himself committed the said offence".

"The police are closely following the case and it has directed the local Gandhi Maidan police station to arrest the owner of the hotel. Instructions have also been issued to arrest Pranav Kumar, the general manager of the hotel. The police have been asked to take necessary action against them without any delay," Patna senior superintendent of police Manu Maharaaj told The Telegraph.

"Both men are absconding at present and raids are on to apprehend them," he added.

The crackdown on the duo comes a day after the police asked Patna hotels to "cooperate" in the implementation of total prohibition. The police have advised the hotel management to inform them in case they notice any suspicious behaviour of a guest - ordering of excessive quantity of soda water, glasses and snacks and salad items falling under the purview of "suspicious behaviour".

The advisory from the police is that in case the hotel notices anything untoward, the management should inform them immediately and become complainants.

On Thursday, officials of the excise department nabbed three persons consuming liquor at a room in the Patliputra Ashok Hotel after the authorities tipped them off.

Since the hotel became a complainant, the police have not taken action against the Patliputra Ashok management.

The Panache, located near the Gandhi Maidan, is a four star hotel which started functioning in Patna around two years ago.

"In the case of The Panache, it is evident that they didn't inform the police or the excise department. Waiters were going to the room and serving the seven people snacks and thus had knowledge about the activities going on," a police officer said under cover of anonymity.

The court of judicial magistrate Kiran Chaturvedi today rejected the bail petition of the seven businessmen arrested from the hotel on Tuesday. The accused petitioners are Pradeep Kumar Lohia, Rajeev Agrawal, Sanjay Kumar Poddar and Ashok Agrawal of Patna, and Sanjay Tekriwal, Sachin Agrawal, and Shailesh Saraff from Surat in Gujarat.

Ajay Kumar Singh, the president of the Restaurant and Hotel Association of Bihar, called the police decision ordering the arrest of The Panache owner and general manager "shocking".

"The hotels are cooperating with the police and the authorities and the example of Patliputra Ashok is at the forefront. All hotels have stopped drinks on their premises and guests are being cautioned about consuming liquor. The arrest order is shocking and it is set to further increase the feeling of insecurity. As said earlier, a hotel always has guests and it is not possible practically to check each of them. Moreover, the owner of the hotel or even the general manager is not present in the hotel all the time. The association condemns the action and we will meet the chief minister regarding the matter," Singh told The Telegraph.