MUMBAI: Mumbai Police has arrested one more youth in the case of alleged manhandling of Indian cricketer Prithvi Shaw after he refused to click selfies with social media influencer Sapna Gill and her friend.
The name of the arrested youth is Sobit. A total of four arrests have been made in the case so far, as per Mumbai Police.
Earlier, two youths namely Rudra and Sahil were also taken into custody by Mumbai Police. The incident took place in the early hours of Wednesday.
Shaw was allegedly manhandled and his car was attacked with a baseball bat outside a hotel in the Santacruz area of Mumbai, following an argument with the woman social media influencer and her friend Shobit Thakur after the batter refused to click more selfies with the influencer.
A complaint about the incident was filed by Shaw’s friend Ashish Yadav, who is his flatmate for the last three years and runs a cafe.
As per the complaint, the cricketer was approached by Gill and Thakur for a selfie at the hotel and Shaw initially allowed them to get clicked with him. But when they insisted on getting more pictures, Shaw turned down the demand, following which Gill and her friend started misbehaving with the cricketer in an inebriated condition. On seeing this, the hotel manager intervened and asked both Gill and Thakur to vacate the premises.
Following the incident, Shaw and Yadav had dinner at the hotel. But when they stepped out, they saw Thakur holding a baseball bat in his hand, the complaint said. The accused went on to attack the windshield of the car and Shaw was also manhandled by Gill, it said. The cricketer was shifted to another car while Yadav and others drove his vehicle to Oshiwara.
Yadav said three motorcycles and a white-coloured car were chasing their vehicle. At 4 am, the chasers attacked his car while it was taking a u-turn near a petrol pump on Link Road, he said.
Thakur was one of the persons chasing the vehicle and attacked its windshield with a bat, the complaint said.
Six persons on motorcycles along with Gill and Thakur, who were both sitting in a car, abused Yadav and his friends, the complaint said, adding that Yadav took the car to Oshiwara police station.
The eight accused followed Yadav to the station and threatened him to pay Rs 50,000 to settle the issue or else she would lodge a fake police complaint against them, as per police.
The Oshiwara Police arrested Gill on Thursday and seven others were booked for allegedly trying to intimidate the cricketer by damaging his car and threatening to implicate him in a fake case.
The Police recorded the statement of Shaw’s friend Ashish Yadav again on Tuesday.
Yadav told the police that the accused had threatened to kill him.
After Yadav’s statement, the police added Section 387 (putting a person in fear of death or of grievous hurt, in order to commit extortion) of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) to the FIR.
“The accused had given life threats to Yadav. IPC Sec 387 added to the FIR,” Mumbai Police said.
Oshiwara Police registered a case under sections 143 (unlawful assembly), 148 (rioting), 384 (extortion), 506 (criminal intimidation) and some other sections of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) based on the complaint.
Police said that Gill and Thakur were in an intoxicated state during the incident.
Sapna Gill was produced before the Andheri court on Friday where the court sent her in police custody till February 20.
It was argued on behalf of Sapna’s lawyer referring to media reports that Shaw has a habit of alcohol and that is why he has been banned by the BCCI.
“Sapna didn’t say anything like give Rs 50,000 and end the case. There is no proof of this. Sapna is an influencer, after 15 hours Prithvi Shaw gets the complaint done through his friend in the police..why it was not done on the same day?” the lawyer argued.
Accused Sapna Gill said in court that she did not know who Prithvi Shaw was.
“My friend had asked him for the selfie. I didn’t know he is a cricketer. We were only two and Prithvi shaw was with his eight friends. It’s all wrong that they had food in the hotel, we were partying in the club, and he was drunk. The police asked us to end the matter,” she said.
While talking to the media, Sapna Gill’s lawyer said that the allegations levelled by Shaw are false.
“Today we put our stand in the court that the allegations levelled by Prithvi Shaw are all wrong. In the next hearing, we will demand judicial custody of Sapna and as soon as the court grants it, we will appeal for bail, police have added Section 387,” he said. (ANI)