Stand-up comedian and Bigg Boss 17 winner Munawar Faruqui was released from police detention after he was found smoking hookahs during a raid in south Mumbai. Taking to Instagram Stories, Munawar shared a selfie in which he smiled and posed. He was seen wearing a blue T-shirt and a cap in the closeup picture as he stood inside a room. To the photo, Munawar added the time stamp as 04:55, which was after his release. He wrote, "Tired and travelling (sparkles emoji)." He geo-tagged the location as Mumbai's Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj International Airport.
The Social Service branch of the Mumbai police conducted the raid at a hookah parlour located in Bora Bazar area of Fort around 10.30 pm on Tuesday, and the operation continued till 5am of Wednesday, an official said. "During the raid, the police found stand-up comedian Munawar Faruqui and others smoking hookahs at the joint. We also have a video of their act. We detained Faruqui and others, but they were later allowed to go as the sections slapped against them were bailable," a senior police official said. Police had received information that some patrons were smoking tobacco-based hookahs at the parlour in the guise of smoking herbal hookahs, he said. Munawar and others were booked under the Cigarettes and Other Tobacco Products Act along with the Indian Penal Code (IPC) sections 283 (danger or obstruction in public way or line of navigation), 336 (act endangering life or personal safety of others), the official said. Notices were served to Munawar and others by the Mata Ramabai Ambedkar Marg police and they were allowed to go, he said.