A Delhi-based entrepreneur running a multi-brand cloud kitchen operation in Vasant Kunj has gone public with a detailed account of what he describes as sustained police pressure to shut down his night operations.
Gagandeep Singh Sapra, known on X as @TheBigGeek and founder of the System 3 Group of Companies, posted a detailed thread on Monday night documenting his second encounter with police at his cloud kitchen premises. The visit, he said, took place at approximately 9:40 PM on Monday, and involved three officials — two in uniform, including a senior officer with three stars, and one in plain clothes.
"Three officials came in today — two in uniform, one of them a senior officer with three stars, and one in plain clothes. Their primary concern seemed to be why we are operating a multi-brand setup," Sapra wrote.
"The explanation given to us was that there have been thefts in the area, and therefore we cannot operate at night. According to them, if we want to continue operations, we must first hire private security guards and station them at the building. Their reasoning was explicit: the police are not there to work for us." he added.
Sapra pointed out the contradiction in the approach. "The logic being applied is difficult to accept: if people are working, thefts will happen; if no one is working, thefts will stop. By that reasoning, we might as well not step out of our homes, because otherwise their workload increases."
He added that a call was made to the kitchen's munshi with a blunt instruction — "band karo, pehle guard rakho, phir baat karenge.(First hire a guard, then we will talk.)"
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The result was immediate. "As of now, we have shut operations for the night in Vasant Kunj. Six skilled, handpicked team members are sitting idle and worried about what comes next. These are hardworking individuals focused on delivering quality food, not people who deserve to be treated like criminals," he wrote.
He also noted, pointedly, that there was no demand for a bribe during this visit, but that a threat made in an earlier interaction — that his staff could be detained — was "subtly repeated again in the evening."
In subsequent post he also said, "So you can be a job creator, you can build for Bharat, you can be an honest tax paying citizen, but you will have to bribe your way for @CPDelhi's team to even let you do your job."
The Delhi Police's South West District DCP account responded on X, saying that multiple theft incidents, including motorcycle theft, had been reported from the Masoodpur Dairy area, and that cloud kitchens operating in Dairy No. 31 and Dairy No. 7 were causing heavy congestion and late-night movement that residents had complained about.
When asked about his statement on the incident, the DCP SW, Surender Chaudhary said, "The incident took place at around 2 am on Monday. Police was doing routine patrolling in the area when they received the complains of congestion and overcrowding in the area by residents. Hence, they asked the business to shut down for the moment. Cops were just doing their duty."
"Additionally, on inquiry, the operators failed to produce valid licences for late-night operations," the DCP office said, adding that "no misconduct or wrongful intent on the part of police personnel has been found."
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The department also invited Sapra to file a detailed complaint with supporting evidence before the Vigilance Unit.
Sapra, however, maintained his position. "My personal belief is the opposite: a city that runs 24x7 is safer 24x7. It is the inactive, empty areas that create opportunities for crime," he wrote.
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