Jealous friends closed restaurant after Rahul had coffee: Owner

KOZHIKODE - Abdul Azeez was overjoyed that Congress MP Rahul Gandhi chose his restaurant here to have a cup of coffee but his happiness was short-lived as his eatery was soon shut after it was found to be unhygienic. He now alleges that his “jealous” friends were behind the closure.

Azeez, 53, said that his friends were not too happy with the free publicity his Olive Restaurant had got, thanks to Gandhi’s visit last week. He accuses them of complaining to the authorities.

“See, my hotel called Olive Restaurant was opened nine months back and it can seat 60 people. This building belongs to a Congress supporter who was quite active when Rahul (Gandhi) visited last week. I was not here in the hotel when our VIP visitor came and had coffee and took snaps with the hotel employees. I of course got a lot of publicity and that appears to have irked a few people,” Azeez told IANS.

“A few days after his visit, one of my staff members had a verbal duel with a few people who frequent our hotel and they complained to the health officials that my hotel is not clean and the water we use is not hygienic,” he said.

A public health official inspected his Olive Restaurant Monday and asked Azeez to shut it for a week and make it more hygienic before reopening it.

Sreeja Noble, the health inspector attached to the Olavanna primary health centre, said she inspected the eating joint following a complaint and maintained that the place was not clean enough.

“We found out that the place where the food is kept is not hygienic. Also, the hotel is situated in a waterlogged area. The water quality being used is not in tune with standards. We have asked him (Azeez) to close down the hotel for a week and open it after rectifying the complaints. Our inspection has nothing to do with the visit of Rahul Gandhi,” Sreeja told IANS.