Mumbai, August 02: Just days after Bollywood actor Emraan Hashmi claimed that his dream to buy a flat in Mumbai’s posh Pali Hill was turned down by Nibbana Cooperative Society on religious grounds, a fresh complaint has been lodged against the actor and his filmmaker uncle Mahesh Bhatt at the DB Road police station.
The complaint was filed by social worker Sanjay Bedia who has accused the actor and his uncle for dividing society on communal basis and playing a publicity gimmick.
On Thursday, the actor cried hoarse and accused the Pali Hill society of racism. The actor openly said, “I was denied a house here because I am a Muslim.”
Talking about the incident, Emraan said, “This has political connotations, so they don’t want to talk about it openly. On Thursday, they told me that I can’t get the NOC. I asked them why aren’t you giving me the certificate — am I a criminal, or a terrorist or have I done anything illegal?”
“It is strange that they don’t tell you on your face that you can’t get a house because you are a Muslim. It would have been easier if they would have told me openly. What they told me is that they can’t allow me to live there because I am a serial kisser and my presence will have a bad influence on the children staying there.”
“Being a celebrity if I’m facing problems in buying a house here, I wonder what kind of problems others would have been facing. All the time we are talking about secularism but with such incidents what secularism are people talking about?”
Meanwhile, Emraan has approached the State Minority Commission against the decision.
However, the housing society in Pali Hill has rebuked the actor for making a mountain out of a molehill. The representatives of the society said that they had not promised to sell the house to him. “I am sorry about the ‘tamasha’ but the society had not promised a house to the actor and he has unnecessarily created an issue out of nothing,” a representative said.
–Agencies