Monday, November 24, 2008

Glam Shradha Sharma's Air humiliation


Bollywood and TV actress, the glamorous Shradha Sharma has accused economy airline Jetlite (formerly Sahara Airways and now owned by the Jet Airways Group) of humiliation, torture and theft.


In a police complaint registered by Shradha Sharma and her manager and publicist Flynn Remedios, Shradha has accused Jetlite staff and loaders of stealing her camera, cash, jewellery and other items like wallet containing credit cards, car keys and house keys.

Shradha was running a fever due to the climate change and over exertion – she had been rehearsing for two days continuously and had taken ill due to stress. On her flight back from Delhi she was carrying about Rs 1.5 lakh in cash (given to her as professional fees for the stage show), her digital camera/camcorder, new N96 mobile phone and some other items totally valued at approximately Rs 3 lakh.

At Delhi airport while screening her baggage at the X-Ray machine, she told the attendant that she had valuables and money in her handbag and asked him if it was wiser to take it as hand baggage or put it in her suitcase. The attendant immediately responded that she should put the small handbag inside the main bag and that they would seal it in her presence. She did accordingly locking the suitcase and the loaders strapped it and sealed it after affixing the security sticker. Shradha was relieved as she wanted to go to sleep on the flight and didn't want to have the tension of carrying the cash with her on flight.



Upon landing in Mumbai, at the conveyor belt she noticed that her bag was in tatters. The lock was missing and the zipper was broken. Even the side pocket zippers were open. It was obvious that the imported Marco Polo soft luggage suitcase had been broken into. She immediately checked her bag and found her expensive Cartier handbag – itself worth about Rs 20,000/- was missing and so were her cash and other items.

Shradha who was alone, immediately contacted the first Jetlite assistant she could spot and told him that her bag had been broken and cash was missing. The assistant looked at her from head to toe and immediately muttered to himself in Hindi under his breath and said, "Why do women with lesser clothes have more money." He also told her that she was probably paying more attention to her clothes than to her belongings.

Shradha who was offended and broke into tears immediately, phoned her manager and publicist Flynn Remedios and another friend who rushed to the airport and reached in about 20 minutes. On Monday, we will file a "claims suit against jetlite for Rs ten lakh compensation" and will also approach the zonal DCP to speed up the investigation. [By Flynn Remedios]

0 comments:

Post a Comment