Pune’s High Spirits Bar Is Drowning In Accusations Of Sexual Harassment. Here’s What Happened So Far.

It is a sad, sad fact, the number of sexual harassment cases that are coming to light lately.The only silver lining in this situation could be that more and more women are deriving courage to come forward and share their ordeal, which in turn, gets these sleazy perpetrators caught.

For those who keep up with social media, the case of Pune’s High Spirits bar and its owner, Khodu Irani has become a bone of contention. Some don’t believe the allegations of sexual harassment levelled against him; others are submitting one proof after another. We’ll let you decide for yourselves where you’d like to stand on this.

Here’s a roundup of everything that has happened so far.

It all started when Sheena Dabholkar, a writer/blogger from Pune, shared her harrowing experiences at the popular watering hole in Koregaon Park, Pune.

https://twitter.com/weeny/status/918017563623337984

In her tweets, she explicitly mentioned how the owner, Khodu Irani and his “cronies” were all willing participants in this and that the bar was unsafe for women.

https://twitter.com/weeny/status/918017970407989248

Sheena’s tweet was a trigger, after which everything came tumbling down for the bar. Several female patrons and ex employees contacted Sheena and shared their stories with her. She posted them on her Twitter as proof for the naysayers and non-believers.

The number of accusations against the owner, right from groping breasts and butts to pouring beer over the head of a female employee, make him look like a desi version of Harvey Weinstein.

https://twitter.com/weeny/status/919076588272177152

https://twitter.com/weeny/status/919837909464813568

Another surprising, yet not quite a secret, revelation was how on the club’s annual party night, there were awards handed out for “best boobs” and the winner was informed prior to come and collect it.

https://twitter.com/weeny/status/919105223783796736

The final straw was a no-holds-barred blog post on Medium written by an ex-employee, Divya, where she spoke about her abuse at the hands of her boss, Khodu, after he found out that she had spoken to his wife about his pervy ways.

“… he (my boss) then poured a pint of beer on my head during my shift, and told me told that if I went home to change, or ever brought this up to her (his spouse) again, I would lose my job.”

These proofs and stories convinced some; and yet there were many who still supported Khodu, saying that he was a nice person and that such behaviour was pretty ‘normal’. However, several popular names have come out and condemned it too.

It was my first time there and I was in the middle of my set in front of 200 odd people there.

— Tanmay Bhat (@thetanmay) October 14, 2017

I knew about this behaviour at High Spirits since 2016. Heard about it from friends. I stopped taking shows there-but I never mentioned why.

— out of context aditi mittal (@awryaditi) October 14, 2017

https://twitter.com/karuneshtalwar/status/918417034203029504

Not just comedians, performers, and musicians but every customer should boycott HIGH SPIRITS, Pune. https://t.co/8LDMjnxVmW

— वरुण 🇮🇳 (@varungrover) October 16, 2017

https://twitter.com/one_by_two/status/919185861043830784

The thing about social media is, not everyone will agree to your point of view. The only way these allegations can amount to anything is if these women take their stories to the police and don’t back out of these claims.

Let’s hope the truth, one that has everyone convinced, surfaces soon and justice is swiftly served. But it is up to us, patrons of these bars and nightclubs to report such cases of sexism before it’s too late. Our silence could destroy lives.