Kamal Ghorui
Vikas Nath, an Indian-origin businessman and owner of two Michelin-starred restaurants, has admitted to spiking a woman’s drink at an exclusive London nightclub in January 2024, according to court proceedings reported by the BBC.The incident took place on January 15, 2024, at Annabel’s in Mayfair, where staff members spotted Nath adding a substance to a woman’s margarita. The substance was later identified as gamma-butyrolactone (GBL), a controlled Class B drug often referred to as a “date-rape drug” because of its severe effects when mixed with alcohol.While Nath has admitted to spiking the woman’s drink, he has denied doing so in order to have sex with her, claiming instead that he added the substance to help her “relax”.Nath also told jurors: “What I did was wrong and I regret it very deeply.”According to court testimony, Nath is the director of the Michelin-starred Benares restaurant in Mayfair and owns several high-end restaurants in the UK and Spain. The woman told the court that she had met Nath five to six times prior to the incident and said he appeared genuinely concerned about her wellbeing, often inviting her out for drinks.She told the court that Nath had previously warned her about the risk of drinks being spiked. Describing him as “generous” and someone who always paid for their lunches, she said,“He came across as he cared for me and it was nice. I never thought he would have made a physical move on me so I felt safe with him.”On the night of the incident, Annabel’s staff noticed what they described as “rather strange actions” by Nath, who was alone at the table at the time. Staff members watched as he used a straw to take liquid from a bottle he appeared to be concealing before dripping it into the woman’s drink.After alerting senior managers, staff replaced the woman’s cocktail and later informed her that her drink had been spiked. The matter was subsequently reported to the police.Prosecutor Tim Clark told the court that Nath attempted to dispose of evidence before police arrived.“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 whThe trial continues. en police recovered it,” Clark said, according to the BBC.In a police interview following the incident, Nath said he had obtained the gamma-butyrolactone as a cleaning fluid for a high-performance car and claimed a friend had told him it could also be consumed with alcohol as a “relaxant”. He told officers he was unaware that possessing GBL was illegal, admitting that he has himself used it that night as it heightened the effects of alcohol.The woman told the court she was initially so shocked by what she had been told that she attempted to defend Nath.“I remember vividly defending Mr Nath, saying ‘There is no way he could do that’. I remember sending him a message saying ‘I’m sorry, I don’t know what’s happening’. Because I felt it was my fault. I didn’t want him in trouble, I didn’t believe it,” she said.The trial continues.
