Prithvi Shaw selfie row: Bombay HC issues notices on Sapna Gill’s plea to quash FIR

The Bombay High Court on Thursday issued notices to the Mumbai police and Indian cricketer Prithvi Shaw on a plea by social media influencer Sapna Gill seeking quashing of the FIR filed against her by Shaw for rioting, extortion and criminal intimidation. Gill was arrested on Feb 16 for allegedly attacking Shaw and his friends after a brawl over taking selfies at Hotel Sahara Star in Santacruz.

A division bench of Justices SB Shukre and Milind Sathaye issued the notice and kept the plea for hearing after six weeks.

In her plea, Gill has urged the HC to issue directions to initiate disciplinary proceedings against the investigating officer Prasad Ingavale, senior police inspector of Oshiwara police station Manohar Dhanawade, and an officer from the airport police station, Satish Kawankar. It alleges that these officers worked “hand in glove” with Shaw and his friend Ashish Yadav by “misusing their authority” by invoking unjustified serious criminal sections against Gill.

The influencer has further alleged that Yadav had “approached the police machinery with unclean hands and has levelled baseless and unsubstantiated allegations against her by filing a vexatious complaint fraught with lies by misusing laws hand in gloves with influential and powerful people (Shaw)”.

Sapna Gill turns the tables on Prithvi Shaw

Her advocate argued that the cricketer did not suffer life threatening injury and it was Gill who was injured. However, the police did not take an FIR. In fact, Yadav filed the FIR, at Shaw’s behest, against Gill just to get out of the molestation charge.

According to the police, Yadav, Shaw and his friend Brijesh were having dinner at Hotel Sahara Star’s café. Despite obliging Gill and her friend Shobit Thakur with a selfie, they started to harass them. When Shaw refused to pose for more selfies, the two allegedly misbehaved with him.

When Shaw left the hotel with friends around 4am, six people on motorcycles and two others in a car, including Gill, followed them and abused Yadav and friends after stopping their vehicle, according to the complaint. One accused broke the car’s rear windshield with a baseball bat, said the police. Gill allegedly threatened Yadav with a false complaint and demanded ₹50,000 to back off.