Punjabi singer Gippy Grewal arrested for flouting COVID-19 lockdown rules
Popular Punjabi actor-singer Gippy Grewal has been arrested at a Banur village in Punjab's Patiala district for flouting weekend lockdown rules. This comes days after Jimmy Sheirgill was booked for shooting in Ludhiana. According to police, Grewal and his team were shooting, defying the COVID-19 rules on Saturday. Over 100 people were reportedly present at the shooting location. They were released on bail later.
Grewal failed to show any document permitting him to shoot
As per reports, Banur police station was tipped off about the shoot after which they raided Karala village in the Rajpura division to arrest the actor and the crew. They were reportedly shooting a death scene in the agricultural fields when the police arrived. Reports also said that Grewal failed to show any document that grants him permission to shoot during the lockdown.
'Request for permission still pending,' the singer told the cops
After being nabbed, the Phulkari singer said that they had applied for the requisite permissions but the response was still pending. Adding it was their last day of the shoot, Grewal assured the police that they were following all COVID-19 protocols. They were booked under Section 188 of the IPC, Section 51 of Disaster Management Act, and Section 3 of the Epidemic Act.
Police to take action against land owner too
Gurvinder Singh, DSP Rajpura, said action against the landowner who leased the location for the shoot will be taken as per the rules. He explained: "Initially, the police was informed that around 100 team members are present at the site but later when police reached they found only a few people present there." But villagers alleged that the crowd fled upon the police's arrival.
Jimmy Sheirgill had been arrested for the same offense earlier
The locals were understandably miffed for the "sheer callousness" displayed by the shooting team and villagers who gave their location for the shooting. Earlier, in a similar case, Sheirgill and director Eeshwar Nivas were booked by the Ludhiana police for carrying out the shoot of a web series hours after the daily curfew was enforced. It is time production teams realize their social responsibility.
