Cricketer Prithvi Shaw selfie controversy: Social media influencer sent in police custody till Feb 20

Cricketer Prithvi Shaw reacts towards a group of people who allegedly turned violent after Shaw refused them for selfies. File Pic/PTI

A Mumbai court 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, the PTI reported.

The incident took place early Wednesday morning outside a luxury hotel in Vile Parle East following an argument between Shaw and the social media influencer and her male friend after the player refused to click selfies with her, the police said on Thursday.

Gill was arrested on Thursday evening, while cases were also registered against her friend Shobhit Thakur and six others for alleged rioting and extortion.

As per the complaint, Thakur and Gill approached Shaw for a selfie at the hotel. Initially, the cricketer obliged. But they insisted on clicking more selfies, a demand that Shaw turned down. After that, Gill and Thakur allegedly started arguing and misbehaving with him.

The complaint also said that both of them (Gill and Thakur) were in an inebriated condition.

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Atleast eight people were booked by the Mumbai Police for alleged extortion and unlawful assembly after a brawl over taking selfies with Team India Cricketer Prthvi Shaw, a police official said on Thursday.

According to the FIR filed with the Oshiwara Police by a businessman and friend of Shaw, the matter started at a club after some of the suspects who were allegedly seeking selfies mobbed the cricketer, who obliged some and denied others when the requests became incessant, the official said.

Official sources said, some of the suspects got annoyed after the hotel manager asked them to vacate the premises. The suspects allegedly followed the cricketer while he was leaving from the premises and even gave a chase to a car in which they believed the cricketer was leaving the hotel. But, a friend of the cricketer was travelling in it.

(with PTI inputs)