An argument over a selfie quickly escalated into a baseball bat and car chase for cricketer Prithvi Shaw in Mumbai, according to a police complaint.
Eight people have been named in the police case for accosting Mr Shaw and his friend, breaking his car window and demanding Rs 50,000.
The people named in the complaint – two of whom have been identified as Shobhit Thakur and Sana or Sapna Gill – have denied the allegations and accused the 23-year-old cricketer of first assaulting them.
According to Shaw’s friend’s complaint, the brawl at a luxury hotel near the Mumbai airport began in the early hours of Wednesday when two fans – a man and a woman – approached the cricketer for a selfie.
After a few pictures, when they refused to back down and demanded more, Mr. Shaw called his friend and the manager of the hotel to remove the fans.
The complaint states that after being ejected, fans waiting outside for Prithvi SHAW surrounded Shaw along with a few others armed with baseball bats.
When Mr Shaw and his friends got out of the car, they chased the car, stopped it at a traffic signal near Oshiwara and broke the windshield.
According to Mr Shaw’s friend, they demanded Rs 50,000, threatening to file a fake police case.
However, the allegations have been challenged by those named in the case.
Talking to the media, Sapna Gill’s lawyer Ali Kashif Khan has alleged that Prithvi Shaw assaulted the woman.
A video made by Ms. Gill’s friend shows her struggling with Mr. Shaw, who is clutching a broken baseball bat.
Khan said, “Sapna has been kept at the Oshiwara police station. They are not even being allowed to go for medical examination.”