Mumbai: Policemen lathi charge film unit for playing loud music at noon!

Adding some unexpected drama to a movie shoot a team of city cops mdash who are notorious for ignoring complaints about noise pollution mdash lathicharged a unit of 200 staff members inside Filmistan Studio for playing loud music at noon on Monday The unit members have alleged that the cops manhandled men and women of the production unit and took some of them to the police station only to set them free eventually ldquoIt is a blatant violation of their powers How can the cops go to such a criminal extent and beat up innocents including women for no reasonrdquo questioned Vishal Tyagi president of Movie Action Dummy Effects Association who was part of the unit Getting the stick Vishal Tyagi and Ram Yadav members of the unit were among those who faced the wrath of the cops PicNimesh Dave Tyagi added ldquoThe music was not loud enough to merit such action Moreover we were within the premises of the studio which is private property If they had queries pertaining to permissions for the shoot they should have got in touch with the studio incharge What right did they have to beat up innocent unit membersrdquo The incident took place around 1130 am on Monday while Tyagi along with 200 members of the unit were shooting a Holi sequence for a Tamil film starring South stars Ajith Rana Daggubati and Nayanthara Renowned director Vishnuvardhan is making the film lsquoCutrsquo The unit members alleged that two constables from Goregaon police station appeared at the spot and demanded to know if the unit had taken requisite permission for the shoot ldquoThe staff politely informed them that the shoot was taking place within the premises of the studio and suggested that the studio incharge be contacted with queries But they refused to listen to the staff When the constables disrupted the shoot the staff members intervened and this led to an argument Taking offence the constables informed their superiors over wirelessrdquo said one of the crewmembers who claimed that the cops had threatened him not to speak to the press Soon after this two police cars full of cops arrived at the spot The unit again tried to clarify their stand but their efforts were in vain Ram Yadav production unit member who was the first person to get assaulted by the cops said ldquoI just asked the policemen why they had stopped us when we had all permissions in place Not listening to me they started hitting me with sticksrdquo ldquoWhoever came forward to stop the lathicharge was beaten up by the cops Even the women in the unit were not spared Cops manhandled them toordquo Tyagi added The crewmembers revealed that the cops forcibly took three of the staff members including Vishal Tyagi to Goregaon police station They claim that even then they had no clue what they had done wrong At the station too the crewmembers were humiliated and ribbed about their ethnicity and not given a chance to speak they alleged After being detained for about 1520 minutes all of them were set free Section 110 of the bombay police act Section 110 of the Bombay Police Act permits any policeman including a constable to book and arrest a person for lsquoindecent behaviour in publicrsquo if it occurs in his sight The cop can levy a fine of Rs 1200 on the detained person If the accused is unable to produce it they are to be produced in court the following day The other side When contacted Senior Police Inspector Arun Jadhav said ldquoThey had misbehaved with us and the police staff was manhandled We got two calls from the control room about loud music being played Following this we brought the staff to the police station and fined them under Section 110 of the Bombay Police Actrdquo Counterclaim Contrary to this a staffer said that the charge was added only to cover up their action ldquoIf the cops are claiming that we misbehaved with their staff why were they not booked for assaulting government officers At the time when they were rounded up at the police station no action was taken on paper The cops have also been threatening them not to go to the mediardquo he said Tyagi said that none of them paid any kind of fine u00a0u00a0