Indian cricketer Prithvi Shaw’s car was attacked with a baseball bat by a person after a brawl over taking selfies with him outside a luxury hotel at Santacruz in Mumbai, police officials said on Thursday.
The incident took place in the early hours of Wednesday, they said, adding that a woman social media influencer, identified as Sapna Gill, was arrested in this connection on Thursday evening, while seven others were booked on the charge of rioting and extortion.
A video of the incident has gone viral on social media.
Shaw had gone to the hotel located near the domestic airport at Santacruz for dinner with his businessman friend when it occurred, an official said.
A complaint in this connection was lodged by Shaw’s friend and flatmate Ashish Yadav, who runs a cafe. Yadav has been staying with Shaw at Bandra since the last three years, he said.
As per the complaint, an unidentified person approached Shaw for a selfie. Initially, the cricketer allowed that person to do so. But the latter kept insisting on clicking more selfies with him, a demand that Shaw turned down. After that, the accused started arguing and misbehaving with the cricketer, the official said.
On seeing this, the manager of the hotel intervened and asked the person, who was demanding selfies with Shaw, to vacate the premises, he said.
After this incident, Shaw and Yadav had dinner at the hotel. But while they were stepping out of the place along with their friend, they saw the same person holding a baseball bat in hand. After they sat in their car, the accused attacked the windshield of the vehicle with the baseball bat. Sensing more trouble, Shaw was shifted to another car while Yadav and others drove his vehicle to Oshiwara, he said.
Yadav saw three motorcycles and a white-coloured car chasing their vehicle. Around 4 am, those following him attacked his car when it was taking a U-turn near a petrol pump on Link Road. One of them slammed the baseball bat on the rear windshield due to which it broke.
The six persons on motorcycles and two others in the car, including a woman, abused Yadav and those accompanying him. After that, Yadav took the car to Oshiwara police station. The eight accused also followed them there. The woman accused started arguing and threatened Yadav to pay Rs 50,000 to settle the matter or else she would lodge a false police complaint against them, the police official said.
The man who demanded selfies with Shaw was later identified as Shobhit Thakur, while the woman who allegedly tried to extort money from them was identified as Sana alias Sapna Gill, he said.
After that, Yadav lodged a complaint against the accused. Based on his complaint, the Oshiwara police registered a case against the eight accused under Indian Penal Code (IPC) sections 143 (unlawful assembly), 148 (rioting), 384 (extortion), 506 (criminal intimidation) and others, he said.
Investigation into the case is underway, the police official said.