News
Owner Of West Side Grocery Store May Be Deported
By John Burton
RED BANK - The owner of a west side grocery store that had its liquor license revoked last year is now facing deportation, a spokesman for the federal Immigration and Customs Enforcement acknowledged this week.
Pankaj "Sunny" Sharma, a Middletown resident and native of India, was taken into custody on Thursday April 1, and was transported to the Monmouth County Correctional Facility, Freehold, by federal authorities, Borough Police Captain Darren McConnell, said last week.
McConnnell said local authorities had minimal involvement in the arrest and detention and it was a federal matter.
Harold Ort, a spokesman for Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), responded to questions about Sharma with a terse statement, noting only that Sharma, "is in ICE custody and will be removed from the United States."
Ort declined as a matter of department policy to discuss Sharma's situation or where he is currently being held.
Sharma's store, currently called Best Deli and Food Market, is still operating at 75 Leighton Avenue which intersects with Catherine Street on the borough's west side.
Last Thursday, an employee at the store, Casildo Feria, appeared unaware of Sharma's situation, and said Sharma's fiancée should be contacted for any comment.
When called last Thursday, the fiancée declined to give her name and refused to comment on Sharma's arrest.
Prior to being Best Deli and Food Market, Sharma's store was known as 'Best Liquor.' Neighbors had long complained that the store was a trouble spot in the area.
Nearby residents appeared at borough council meetings complaining about noise, traffic and loitering in front of the store, with some alleging that drug activity was taking place around it. The store also had been cited for a number of Alcohol Beverage Control (ABC) and state tax violations, including selling alcohol to minors as young as 15 and 16.
The borough council acted in 2007 to revoke the store's liquor license. Sharma, appealed the decision, but an Administrative Law judge upheld the council's ruling and Sharma was stripped of the license.
In May 2007, Sharma said his age was 31 and he had purchased the store in 2004.
After losing the liquor license, Sharma converted the liquor store to a small grocery and deli.
John Ross, a Leighton Avenue resident, had been quite vocal about the disturbances at the store, which is situated in a residential neighborhood. But he said last week, "When the liquor store stopped being an issue, it definitely changed for the better."
"Nobody hated the idea of the store," he said. Indeed, at council meetings many of the neighbors said the neighborhood needed a place where kids could go to buy candy and soda, and families could purchase basics. "What they hated," Ross explained of the liquor store, "was what that store became."
Faye Reevey, Drs. James Parker Boulevard, was in the store last Thursday. She said she stops in almost every day and was unaware of Sharma's situation. Should the store close, "It would be a real loss for the neighborhood," Reevey said.
