The owners and a senior representative of Bengaluru’s widely popular Rameshwaram Cafe have been booked by police after a customer alleged the eatery served him contaminated food at Kempegowda International Airport and subsequently filed a false extortion case against him.
According to the First Information Report (FIR), the complainant, Nikhil N, was travelling from Bengaluru to Guwahati on July 24. He stopped at the cafe’s Terminal 1 outlet around 7:42 am. He and his friends ordered Ven Pongal and filter coffee, but he allegedly found a worm in his food.
He alerted the staff, who offered a replacement, but he declined as he needed to board his flight. The complaint states that several customers recorded the incident on their phones. Nikhil said he left the cafe "without creating any commotion" and boarded his flight around 8:45 am.
However, the next day, Nikhil learnt that someone from Rameshwaram Cafe, identified as Sumanth BL, had filed a complaint accusing him of demanding ₹25 lakh and threatening the cafe’s brand reputation.
Nikhil has denied making any financial demand, refund request or threat. He claimed he was already inside the aircraft at 10:27 am, the time cited in the cafe’s complaint, and produced his boarding pass and travel records as proof. He also maintained that he has never been in contact with the phone numbers mentioned in the cafe’s complaint.
Police later clarified that their initial inquiry into the cafe’s complaint found no evidence of extortion or blackmail by Nikhil or his friends. Following this development, Nikhil lodged a counter-complaint seeking a probe into the alleged food safety violation and the "false extortion case." He requested CCTV footage from 7:30–8:00 am, flight travel records, call details linked to the numbers named in the cafe’s complaint, and action against the owners. Based on his complaint, the BIAL police station registered an FIR on November 29th against cafe owners Raghavendra Rao, Divya Raghavendra Rao, and senior executive Sumanth Lakshminarayan. The FIR cites multiple offences under the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita, 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).
Nikhil has alleged that serving contaminated food endangered his life and that the subsequent counter-complaint damaged his personal honour and reputation. The investigation is currently underway.
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