Poornima Swaminathan

The Mumbai police’s sojourn in Gujarat to cut out a major link in a piracy racket had its own climax that lasted for over two hours and seemed straight out of a Bollywood script.

The six-member team from the Social Service Branch (SSB), which had wanted to raid a theatre at Navsari to bust the racket, faced stiff opposition from a crowd of at least 50, which included theatre employees and bigwigs from the area.

The Mumbai police’s investigation into a complaint by Yashraj Films that its latest release Tashan had been pirated revealed that the theatre, Shivam Digital, was involved in the racket.

When the police reached the spot to raid the theatre, the crowd gheraoed them.

“We will not let you take anybody from here,” a hefty man barked at the team. “We won’t let you touch anybody,” yelled another.

The theatre is owned by the nephew of a senior Bharatiya Janata Party leader, who was a minister in the previous Narendra Modi government.

It took a while for the sixmember team and 15 constables from the Billimora police station to regain their composure and get cracking.They then told the crowd: “It is none of your business. Get off our way.”

Officials in the Mumbai police said that their Gujarat counterparts were “favouring” the theatre employees and did not take any stern action against them.

“When we tried to enter the premises, the crowd resisted us. They demanded to know under what section of the law we were raiding the place. We told them we were not answerable to anybody and continued our work,” said the senior officer.

When it appeared that the situation might turn volatile, the Mumbai police team called up Rakesh Maria, joint commissioner of police (crime), and reported to him the situation.

Sources said Maria called up Navsari’s superintendent of police and directed him to send his men to the theatre.

“We did not want the situation to become a law and order problem. Soon after Maria intervened, an additional force of around 100 policemen was immediately sent to help us,” the officer said.

After an eight-hour operation, the police arrested Vikram Patel, an operator at the theatre. Patel was remanded in police custody till May 25. The police are grilling him for details about the theatre’s owners and others involved in the racket.

Source : DNA