'Attack' on cricketer Prithvi Shaw over selfie: Woman social media influencer sent in police custody
Mumbai, Feb 17 : A court here on Friday remanded social media influencer Sapna Gill in police custody till February 20 for allegedly manhandling Indian cricketer Prithvi Shaw and attacking his car following a row over clicking of selfies, even as she claimed to be the real victim.
Besides original charges of rioting and extortion, police also invoked Indian Penal Code section 387 (putting a person in fear of death or of grievous hurt in order to commit extortion) against Gill.
The alleged incident had taken place early Wednesday morning outside a luxury hotel in suburban Santacruz.
Based on a complaint lodged by Shaw's friend and flatmate Ashish Yadav, Oshiwara Police registered a case against Gill, her friend Sohbit Thakur and six others under Indian Penal Code sections 143 (unlawful assembly), 148 (rioting), 384 (extortion), 506 (criminal intimidation).
Gill, the only arrested accused in the case, was produced before a magistrate court.
During the remand hearing, police said the co-accused in the case were absconding.
The investigating officer told the court that Thakur and Gill approached Shaw for a selfie at the hotel. Initially, the cricketer obliged them. But when they insisted on clicking more selfies, he declined, after which Gill and Thakur started misbehaving with the cricketer, he alleged.
The hotel manager intervened and asked Gill and Thakur to leave premises.
Shaw and his friend Yadav then had dinner at the hotel. When they were stepping out of the place along with Shaw's another friend, they saw Thakur standing outside with a baseball bat in hand, the official told the court, citing Yadav's complaint.
After they sat in their car, the accused attacked its windshield with the baseball bat. Shaw was also manhandled by Gill. Sensing more trouble, the cricketer was shifted to another car while Yadav and others drove his vehicle to Oshiwara, the IO told the magistrate.
Yadav then saw three motorcycles and a white 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. Thakur, who was one of them, broke the rear windshield with the baseball bat, the IO said.
The six persons on the motorcycles along with Gill and Thakur who were in another car abused Yadav, the IO added.
Yadav then took the car to Oshiwara police station. The eight accused also followed them there. Gill demanded that Yadav pay Rs 50,000 to settle the matter or else she would lodge a false police complaint against them, the investigating officer said.
Opposing the police's remand plea, Gill's lawyer Ali Kaashif Khan Deshmukh said Gill was the victim and not the cricketer.
She should have been filing the case against the cricketer, but he used his "muscle power", the lawyer alleged.
Gill too addressed the court directly, stating that all the allegations against her were false and "he (Shaw) hit me on the chest and arms."
On the claim that the incident took place after she asked for a selfie with Shaw, Gill said, "I do not know him, nor I have ever seen him. I never asked for a selfie with him." She also accused Shaw of being inebriated.
Metropolitan magistrate, Andheri court, C P Kashid after hearing both the sides remanded Gill in police custody.
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India to get first national security semiconductor fabrication plant
Wilmington (PTI): Under a transformative collaboration with the US, India will get a national security semiconductor fabrication plant that will produce chips for use in military hardware and next-generation telecommunications.
The India-US joint project was announced following talks between Prime Minister Narendra Modi and US President Joe Biden in Wilmington on Saturday.
A joint fact sheet on Modi-Biden talks said the two leaders "hailed" the semiconductor project as a "watershed arrangement".
It will be the first ever India-US semiconductor fabrication partnership.
It is the first time ever the US military has agreed to do a partnership for these highly-value technologies with India and it is a watershed moment as it is as significant as the civil nuclear deal, people familiar with the matter said.
"President Biden and Prime Minister Modi hailed a watershed arrangement to establish a new semiconductor fabrication plant focused on advanced sensing, communication, and power electronics for national security, next-generation telecommunications, and green energy applications," the fact sheet noted.
It said the "fab, which will be established with the objective of manufacturing infrared, gallium nitride and silicon carbide semiconductors, will be enabled by support from the India semiconductor mission as well as a strategic technology partnership between Bharat Semi, 3rdiTech, and the US Space Force."
The Fab becomes not only India’s first, but one of the world's first multi-material fabs for national security, the people cited above said.
The fact sheet said Modi and Biden praised combined efforts to facilitate resilient, secure, and sustainable semiconductor supply chains including through GlobalFoundries' (GF) creation of the GF Kolkata Power Center in Kolkata.
It said the project will enhance mutually beneficial linkages in research and development in chip manufacturing.
"The leaders welcomed steps our industry is taking to build safe, secure, and resilient supply chains for US, Indian, and international automotive markets, including through Ford Motor Company's submission of a Letter of Intent to utilize its Chennai plant to manufacture for export to global markets," the document said.
It said Modi and Biden commended ongoing efforts to build more expansive cooperation around 5G deployment and next-generation telecommunications.
This includes the US Agency for International Development's plans to expand the Asia Open RAN Academy with an initial USD 7 million investment to grow this workforce training initiative worldwide, including in South Asia with Indian institutions.
