Police register case against Bengaluru’s Rameshwaram Cafe owners for food adulteration, fake extortion case

Bengaluru Police have registered a case against Rameshwaram Cafe owner Raghavendra Rao, his wife Divya Raghavendra Rao, and senior executive Sumanth Lakshminarayan after a 19-year-old customer filed a complaint alleging food adulteration, criminal conspiracy, and other offences.

According to the FIR, the complainant claimed that a “superworm” was found in a serving of pongal at the cafe’s Kempegowda International Airport Terminal 1 outlet on July 24. The FIR was filed on Saturday.

The customer, which arrived at Terminal 1 on July 24 at around 7:42 a.m. with friends, reportedly informed staff immediately and refused a replacement meal. Several bystanders recorded photos and videos of the incident. The complaint states that the customer left the premises without creating a disturbance and boarded Bengaluru-Guwahati flight at around 8:45 a.m.

The next day, on July 25, the complainant saw media reports stating that Rameshwaram Cafe representative Sumanth BL had filed a counter-complaint accusing him of demanding Rs 25 lakh and threatening the brand. The complainant said the allegation was false and pointed out that flight records show he was already onboard at the time mentioned in the counter-complaint. He said he had no link to any of the phone numbers listed in that complaint and had not asked for compensation or a refund.

The FIR notes that CCTV footage from 7.30am to 8am on July 24, along with the boarding pass, flight records, and call data, were examined as part of the complaint.

The complainant said serving unsafe or contaminated food is a serious food safety violation. He also alleged that the cafe’s owners and representatives filed a false extortion case against him, which harmed his dignity and reputation.

Police have registered the case under several sections of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita, 2023, including Criminal Conspiracy (Section 61), causing hurt by means of poison, etc. (Section 123), providing false information to mislead a public servant (Section 217), fabricating and giving false evidence (Sections 228 and 229) and adulteration and sale of noxious food (Sections 274 and 275).