Videos show Sapna Gill, Shobhit Thakur relaying Prithvi Shaw’s location during assault
Police recover clips on phone, which show Gill and Thakur urging other accomplices to join them soon
The Oshiwara police have recovered several videos in which Sapna Gill and Shobhit Thakur, the main accused in the alleged assault on Prithvi Shaw, are heard relaying the cricketer’s location to their co-accused and asking them to come fast.
The police had arrested Gill on February 16, Shobhit and two others were arrested later after the police registered an FIR based on complaint lodged by Shaw against them. Two more persons are wanted in the case. The six accused are alleged to have damaged Shaw’s car, followed him in their vehicles and tried to extort him by threatening to implicate him in a false case in the early hours on February 15.
According to the Oshiwara police, Thakur and Gill, while following Shaw and his friend Ashish Yadav, recorded videos of his car. At the same time, Thakur was speaking on the phone and this audio was captured clearly in the videos.
“Thakur is heard continuously relaying Shaw’s location to the co-accused and telling them to get there as soon as they could. While Gill and Thakur had the altercation with Shaw outside the Sahara Star hotel, the others were roped in at the last minute,” said an officer with the Oshiwara police station.
The officer added that while Shaw had consented to a selfie with Gill the first time, he was fed up when she repeatedly tried to take more pictures and videos. Shaw then refused to allow her to take any more selfies. Gill, who was allegedly under the influence of alcohol, was offended and told Thakur, and together they decided to teach the cricketer a lesson.
“Thakur had a baseball bat in his vehicle and decided to wait for Shaw outside the hotel, as the hotel management had asked them to leave. When Shaw got out of the hotel, they decided to follow him and extort money from him as a compensation for the perceived insult. They were so outraged that they even tried to attack another couple, who had accompanied Shaw and Yadav to the hotel,” the officer said.
The police have also made inquiries with some of Gill’s friends who met her the morning after the alleged incident. One of the friends told the police that Gill had been so drunk the previous night that her breath smelt of alcohol when he met her the next morning.
Deputy commissioner of police Anil Paraskar, Zone IX said that, according to inquires so far, none of the accused have a criminal record. Meanwhile, Gill, whose police custody period expired on Monday, was produced in court again on Monday and remanded in judicial custody for 14 days. Thereafter the all the four applied for bail and the metropolitan magistrate court granted them bail on furnishing personal bond of ₹10,000 each.
In her application, filed through advocate Kaashif Ali Khan, Gill had claimed that the FIR against her was registered on false and bogus allegations. “The statements in the FIR are fabricated, concocted and without any basis and the applicant is falsely being implicated in the above case,” the plea said.
Public prosecutor Atia Sheikh opposed the bail plea, saying the investigation in the case was not completed yet. She argued that the accused had chased Shaw to take revenge as he refused to oblige a selfie.
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