Indian Man Arrested For Drinking Tea ‘Suspiciously’

A man from India has been arrested after he was caught drinking tea in a suspicious manner.

Police officers arrested the owner of a restaurant, as he appeared to be gulping down the piping hot beverage in a peculiar style.

Vijav Patil insists that he was simply drinking his tea in a normal fashion, at a stall in the town of Kolhapur during the middle of the morning. However, Sub-Inspector Jadhav was unhappy when Mr Patil simply remarked that he was “cutting chai,” which means he was quickly drinking a half-glass of tea.

The police officer then arrested him under a law which, according to the BBC, “allows preventative detention of someone suspected of being about to commit a crime.”

Of course, Mr Patil disagrees with this assessment and he was joined in this conclusion by Mr Justice Gautam Patel at Bombay High Court.

Mr Patel ordered police to drop the case, and declared that he was far from impressed with the arrest, and he even noted that the motivation of the police was “bewildering.”

The judge apparently ruled earlier this month, “We were unaware that the law required anyone to give an explanation for having tea, whether in the morning, noon or night.”

He then continued, “One might take tea in a variety of ways, not all of them always elegant or delicate, some of them perhaps even noisy. But we know of no way to drink tea ‘suspiciously’.”

Police tried to argue that Mr Patil was know to police, having had a a number of criminal cases brought against, but he has never been convicted. The judge wasn’t impressed by these remarks.

Mr Patel concluded, “The ingestion of a cup that cheers demands no explanation. And while cutting chai is permissible, now even fashionable, cutting corners with the law is not.”

[Image via PathDoc/Shutterstock]