AN ASIAN businessman linked to a portfolio of restaurants in the UK is on trial in London, accused of spiking a woman’s drink at a nightclub two years ago.
Vikas Nath, 63, associated with fine-dining Indian restaurants in London, denies charges of trying to administer a substance with intent and possession of a Class B dangerous drug.
According to UK court reports, Southwark Crown Court was told this week that Nath admits spiking the drink only to “relax” the woman.
“His acceptance is not surprising; he had little choice because the spiking was captured on CCTV at Annabel's (nightclub),” prosecutor Tim Clark was quoted in a BBC court report as informing the jury.
The court heard the woman had invited Nath to Annabel’s, an exclusive club where she was a member, and they went to the rooftop bar where she ordered a cocktail.
When she left the table to show friends around the club, two members of staff saw “rather strange actions” by Nath, who had been left alone with the group’s drinks.
The staff watched as Nath used a straw to take liquid from a bottle he was trying to hide and then dripped it into the woman’s drink. They replaced her cocktail after alerting senior managers, before the matter was reported to the police.
“Prior to the police arriving, Mr Nath clearly worked out that he had been rumbled. He tried to hide the evidence of what he had done, going to the lavatory and throwing that little bottle into the cistern, and it was floating about when police recovered it,” Clark said.
In a police interview after the incident in January 2024, Nath said he had got the gamma-butyrolactone (GBL) as a cleaning fluid for a high-performance car, and had been told by a friend that it could also be drunk with alcohol as a “relaxant”.
He told police he had not realised it was illegal for him to be in possession of GBL, a controlled Class B substance referred to as a date-rape drug due to its extreme effects when consumed.
Nath’s trial remains ongoing in London and is expected to conclude in the coming weeks.
(With inputs from agencies)
