The Bengaluru city police has registered a criminal case against Indian spin bowler Amit Mishra after a complaint was filed by his friend at the Ashok Nagar police station. The cricketer has been issued a notice to appear before the police in a week’s time.
According to TOI , the Indian leg-spinner allegedly attacked a woman, who is well known to him, after a verbal altercation at a hotel in Bengaluru on September 25. Two days later, on September 27, she lodged a complaint with Ashok Nagar police in the city.
Thirty-two-year-old Mishra, who is currently representing the country in the series against South Africa, had come to Bengaluru for the conditioning camp ahead of the India South Africa series, when the alleged incident took place, said the newspaper report. Mishra is now in Chennai.
The police has registered the case under various sections of the IPC for voluntarily causing hurt by dangerous weapons or means and assaulting a woman with intent to outrage her modesty. The reason for the attack still remains unknown.
Bangalore Mirror quoted the 34-year-old complainant as saying, “We were close friends for the last three years and socialised during our free time after his training. Suddenly, he began to avoid me. So I decided to confront him and find out why. On September 25, I learnt he was in town for training prior to the South Africa series. Around 8pm, I called him on his mobile, but he did not answer. I then called The Ritz Carlton hotel, who told me he had put up the Do Not Disturb sign on his door.”
She decided to directly go to his hotel room but on going there she realised that Mishra was not in the room. When Mishra returned, he reportedly started shouting at her and accused her of getting into his room without permission, said the BM report.
BM quoted the woman saying, “He began hitting me with his hands and threw the electric kettle at my face. He squeezed my neck so hard that I nearly suffocated, and began screaming for help. He twisted my right wrist so badly that my right ring finger suffered a fracture. Despite this, we sat down for a while and I asked him why he was being so violent with me. He began using filthy words. I then ran out of the room by midnight, crying.”
DCP (central) Sandeep Patil was quoted by TOI as saying, “We have also emailed BCCI, informing them about the case. Mishra is aware of the case and we hope he will cooperate. Regardless of this, our procedures will continue and a report will be submitted to court,” he said.
Patil added that the cricketer has only been issued a notice to appear before the investigating officer as none of the cases for which he has been booked, attracted a punishment of over 7 years.
This is an aggregated report from Times of India and Bangalore Mirror.
Note: The earlier headline had reported that the cricketer was accused of sexual assault. The error is regretted