Boy lands in trouble for trying to dupe hotelier with 'cockroach trick'

Thiruvananthapuram: A teenaged boy landed in trouble after he put fried cockroaches in biriyani at a hotel in Thiruvananthapuram in a bid to extract money from the owner, cashing in on the government crackdown on unhygienic eateries. According to police, the student came to a small hotel and ordered biriyani during the busy lunch hours on Friday. After eating half the plate, the boy all of a sudden stood up and started shouting that there was a cockroach in his biriyani.

Some other customers also joined the boy as he showed them the 'unsavoury fry' in his plate, which led to heated exchange between customers and the hotel staff. As the hue-and-cry continued, the boy told the hotel owner that he would not lodge complaint with the food safety authorities if he was given Rs 1,000 as compensation. The boy's eagerness to 'settle' the issue made the hotelier

suspicious and he called up the police.

The boy admitted to police that he had put fried cockroaches in biriyani to garner some money from the hotelier.

When the police grilled the boy, he admitted that he had purposefully put the cockroach in the food to dupe the eatery owner and garner some money from him. Police also recovered a handful of fried cockroaches from his bag. Police took him to police station and called his parents before letting him off after a stern warning. The Food Safety Authority and Health officials in the state had recently cracked down on scores of hotels and eateries across the state following a spurt in food poisoning cases.

About two months back, a 25-year-old youth died after eating stale 'shavarma', an Arabic food, bought from a city hotel. The incident caused public concern about the hygiene of hotels foods, prompting the authorities to closely monitor the situation.

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