"I thought they would kill me" - Prithvi Shaw opens up on brawl with fans over a selfie
Indian opening batter Prithvi Shaw recently shared details about the pub brawl with social media influencer Sapna Gill and her friends last year. The latter had accused Shaw of physically assaulting her.
Shaw recalled that he was seated next to Gill's table at Barrel club. He mentioned that Gill's group asked him for some selfies, to which he obliged. The cricket star stated that the staff at the club asked the group to leave shortly after.
The 24-year-old claimed that when he stepped out of the pub, the group was waiting for him. He also suggested that Gill had a baseball bat with her. Narrating the entire incident, here's what Shaw told News24:
"I was at Barrel club inside the Sahara Star Hotel in Mumbai with 7-8 friends. 4-5 people sitting on the adjoining table came up to me for selfies, and I obliged. But they came back again because the pictures they took came out to be blurred, so I took the selfie again. Then came a couple who put their arms around my shoulder and started making a video without asking me.
"The manager then asked them to leave the club. Then I also exited after some time from the hotel's front gate. But the girl (Sapna Gill) was standing outside with a baseball bat. They were not looking like normal human beings, the way they all were waiting for me outside. They were on something else."
Prithvi Shaw added that his BMW car was attacked with baseball bats. He revealed that he tried snatching the baseball bat from Gill's hand, which was captured in a video that went viral on social media.
"They attacked my car with a baseball bat while I was slowing down at a CISF check post. They started attacking the windshield and hit it 3-4 times, I was scared of the glass breaking. Then I had to get out of the car with the intention of taking the baseball bat out of her hands otherwise she would have completely ruined my car. So I snatched the baseball bat from her, and that video got viral after she posted it. Only that part was posted.
"I wanted to leave the matter and exit from that place because they were on something, and I did not want my name to be dragged into all of this. So I left in my friend's car while my BMW was still there, which my other friends told me will get back home." he added.
The youngster also admitted that he was very scared, as he thought they were going to kill him.
"I was really scared for my life, I thought they would kill me. For the first time in my life I was so scared. Then we filed the complaint, even though I knew my name would be dragged into it. But I knew that we did not do anything wrong so we filed the complaint."
It is worth mentioning that Sapna Gill had also accused Prithvi Shaw of molestation. However, police later told a Mumbai court that the charges were false and unfounded.
"My friends did not even touch the girl" - Prithvi Shaw
Commenting on the charges of molestation and physical assault, Prithvi Shaw asserted that nobody from his group touched Sapna Gill during the altercation.
Stating that Gill changed the entire narrative of the incident upon reaching the police station, he said:
"They got out and completely flipped their narrative as the girl who was attacked my car started accusing us of beating her. My friends did not even touch the girl, you can check all the cameras present there."
On the cricketing front, Prithvi Shaw is currently recovering from a knee injury that he suffered during an English domestic one-day competition.