High Court quashes COTPA case over hookah items stored at Raipur delivery outlet
Police in Raipur raided a Blinkit dark store in February 2025 and booked two outlet staffers under the tobacco law for storing hookah pipes and flavours. The High Court of Chhattisgarh held mere storage was not running a hookah bar and quashed the FIR, charge-sheet and trial proceedings.
This page records what the cited court records say happened. Findings belong to the court or authority that made them; this register adds none of its own. Names of private individuals are withheld unless a naming gate clears them.
How we verify →The FIR, charge-sheet, cognizance order and trial proceedings stand quashed by the High Court order dated 23.07.2026.
What happened
The High Court recorded that police acted on secret information and raided a Blinkit dark store at Watch Press Complex, Devendra Nagar, Raipur on 09.02.2025, where hookah pipes, papers and flavours valued at Rs 15,000 and computers and laptops valued at Rs 1,50,000 were seized.
The High Court recorded that FIR Crime No. 41/2025 was registered at Police Station Devendra Nagar on 09.02.2025 for offences under Sections 4 and 21(1) of the COTPA Act, 2003, followed by Challan No. 44/2025 and a cognizance order dated 28.03.2025 by the Judicial Magistrate First Class, Raipur.
The High Court recorded that the two petitioners were staff at the store in supervisory and delivery roles and that there was no allegation they had opened or run a hookah bar or served hookah to customers at the site.
The High Court held that the essential ingredient of opening or running a hookah bar was missing on mere possession or storage, allowed the petition under Section 528 of the Bharatiya Nagarik Suraksha Sanhita, 2023, and quashed the FIR, charge-sheet, cognizance order and all proceedings in Criminal Case No. 13563 of 2025.
What the record says
“a raid was conducted on 09.02.2025 at the Watch Press Complex, Blinkit Dark Store,”
CRMP No. 2885 of 2025, High Court of Chhattisgarh at Bilaspur, paragraph 4 — read the full text
No complaining victim
The prosecution allegations concerned the storage and supply of hookah-related materials at a delivery outlet; the High Court found no allegation that a hookah bar was operated or that hookah was served or consumed there.
What we could not confirm
Seizure values and role descriptions are as recorded by the High Court from police papers; the court did not rule on ownership of the stock.