Prithvi Shaw brawl: Police record social media influencer’s statement on her complaint against cricketer

Social media influencer Sapna Gill, who was earlier arrested in a case pertaining to alleged manhandling of cricketer Prithvi Shaw and attacking his car in Mumbai, has accused the batsman of assaulting and touching her inappropriately on the day of the incident, a police official said on Tuesday.

Gill had filed a complaint against the cricketer at the Airport police station on February 20, the day she was arrested and granted bail in the case. She received a reply from the police on February 24 and her statement was recorded the next day, said the official.

No case has been registered yet, he said.

In her two-page statement to the police, Gill alleged that she was partying in a luxury hotel on February 15 when the cricketer and his group of friends “brutally slapped her and touched her private parts”, said her lawyer Ali Kaashif Khan.

Gill has said in her complaint that Shaw and his friends were under the influence of alcohol at the time, said Khan.

“Now, the Airport police station officers have recorded my client’s statement but they have not registered an FIR yet,” said Khan.

The lawyer said, “She (Gill) is being pressured through many sources to not go against Prithvi. If this is how it goes and there’s a delay in registering the FIR, then we would be constrained to proceed ahead under section 166A (public servant disobeying direction under law) of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) against police.” According to the police, a brawl had broken out on February 15 outside a luxury hotel at Santacruz in Mumbai following an argument with Gill and her friend Shobhit Thakur after the 23-year-old cricketer refused to click selfies with her.

Shaw had been to the hotel with a friend that day, the police had said.

Gill and Thakur as well as their six friends allegedly waited for Shaw and his friend outside the hotel and chased them and also broke their car's windscreen with a baseball bat, according to police.

They were later booked under IPC sections 143 (unlawful assembly), 148 (rioting), 387 (putting a person in fear of death or of grievous hurt in order to commit extortion) and 506 (criminal intimidation).

Gill, Thakur and two other accused were arrested on February 20 and secured bail the same day. Two more accused are still wanted, said the official.