The owner of ‘Morning Mist’ homestay at Padil near here has described the attack by the ‘moral police’ on a group of partying boys and girls at the homestay on July 28 as not only unprovoked, but also well planned and executed.
In her first reaction to the media after the incident, Loretta Rebello said the boys booked the facility at 1.30 pm the same day (July 28), to be used from 2.30 pm.
“Though I never give the facility to anybody unless it is booked much in advance and I am convinced, I gave it to them that day because they said they want to celebrate their friend’s birthday at a nice place and some of their friends are coming from Bangalore.”
Since the facility was booked only one hour before the party and as the place is located in a secluded place, Rebello wondered how any group (moral police) could come to know about the party.
Refuting the boys’ claim that she charged Rs 10,000 for five hours, Rebello said she charged Rs 5,000 for 12 to 14 persons for 24 hours. “The boys said that they will vacate the place by 7.30 pm. If needed, one or two persons who have come from Bangalore may stay overnight, they said”. Rebello said she agreed to this.
Incidentally, the group was the first to use the homestay in a span of three months. “None had used the facility since May,” she said. Rebello was not keen on giving the facility to this group, but changed her mind at the last minute as they “requested a lot.”
Varying charges
“I charge the party depending on the number of people,” she said. On one occasion, she charged Rs 40,000 for 40 people (of a marriage party) for three days.
“As the number of guests goes up, the expenses too go up, like cleaning the linen, house, use of water, generator, etc,” she said. Her gross income last year was Rs 1,21,000 and she paid 30 per cent as tax. Rebello said she had documents to show who all stayed in her house till date.
Though she purchased the property in July 2006, she started letting it out on rent only last year.
“Till last year, the facility was used by guests, mostly officials of Central government and Karnataka Urban Infrastructure Development and Finance Corporation.” Rebello said she was looking for a corporate client as she did not find a good tenant. To a query on whether she faced any problem from goons earlier, she replied in the negative. Rebello said she had received three notices, including one each from the police department and Mangalore City Corporation, following the attack. “I will reply to the same within a day or two,” she said.
‘Morning Mist’ was ‘Kamala Vihar’
When Rebello purchased the property, it was named ‘Kamala Vihar.’ As it is a beautiful location with lot of mist in the morning, she decided to name it ‘Morning Mist.’ She added the word ‘homestay’ as she felt that the facility is a ‘home away from home’.
Out of the four houses she owns in the same compound, one is occupied by a French national, one by a Korean, one by a State government official. Saturday’s party was held in the house that was lying vacant.
Though she wished to convert the place into a homestay, as per the tourism department definition, Rebello said she dropped the idea as she was not in a position to serve food to the guests, which is one of the conditions.