Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) team’s Australian player Luke Pomersbach, accused of molesting an American woman and beating up her fiance, Saturday got bail but RCB director Sidhartha Mallya seems set for some trouble for his tweets questioning the character of the woman.
Pomersbach, who was asked by Metropolitan Magistrate Navita Kumari Bagha not to leave the country and to surrender his passport, said he was disappointed with the allegations against him.
“I am disappointed with the allegations made against me. It is a sickening comment and I hope that the court will get to the bottom of the case,” the Australian player told reporters outside the court after getting bail.
“I am happy that I have been granted bail… I am relieved, have faith in Indian judiciary,” he said.
The court asked Pomersbach to submit two sureties of Rs.30,000 each and to cooperate in the investigation and not to tamper with evidence. It dropped the charges under section 454 (lurking, house trespass) of the Indian Penal Code against him.
Meanwhile, Zohail Hameed, the woman Pomersbach is alleged to have molested at the ITC Maurya Hotel here early Friday morning has sent the Mallya scion a legal notice for his tweets casting aspersions on her character. Hameed also filed a complaint with the Delhi Commission for Women (DCW) against him.
Pomersbach had also allegedly beaten Hameed’s fiance Sahil Peerzada when he tried to stop the player.
On Friday, Sidhartha Mallya had tweeted: “The girl who is accusing luke is saying he hit her ‘fiance’… what a load of f****** s***. She was all over me last night and asked for my bbm (blackberry messenger) pin, so if he was her fiance she wasn’t exactly behaving like a future wife.”
DCW chairperson Barkha Singh said she had received the complaint.
“We have received a complaint from Zohail Hameed, and will send him (Mallya) a notice. Whatever has been written about her on twitter, all of that has been filed in the complaint and her lawyers are going to the court too. We are going to pick up this case in the commission,” Singh said Saturday.
Singh informed that Hameed was from America, while her father is from Afghanistan and mother is from Iran.
“I’m very upset, hurt and disappointed by Sidhartha’s comments posted on Twitter and it’s a false claim,” said Hameed who was spotted in black blazer and trousers and came in a white Mercedes car to Singh’s residence in Safdarjung Enclave in south Delhi.
Hameed has also sought Mallya’s unconditional apology, her advocate Jitender Garg said.
Garg told IANS: “A legal notice is issued to Sidhartha Mallya for his twitter comment. We will wait for his reply. And if he refuses to apologise, we will file a defamation case against him.”
On Friday, Delhi Police registered a case of molestation against Pomersbach, who was later released on bail for a day by a city court.
In the court Saturday, the police showed CCTV footage of the hotel to Metropolitan Magistrate Navita Kumari Bagha as sought by the judge Friday.
The court had asked Delhi Police to submit visuals of CCTV cameras installed inside the hotel along with the medical report of Hameed’s fiance and Pomersbach.
Meanwhile, a doctor attending on Sahil Peerzada said he could be discharged from the hospital on Sunday as his condition is now better.
Peerzada had been admitted to Primus Hospital in the diplomatic area Friday following the alleged assault by Pomersback.
Hospital deputy medical superintendent Þep Makkar told IANS: “Sahil Peerzada is absolutely fine now, but he is still under observation. We have to conduct two-three tests including CT scan.”
“We will evaluate his brain condition again, his bleeding has stopped now,” Makkar said, adding that Peerzada has no hearing loss in his left ear as he had complained earlier.
Doctors had Friday said he could suffer from hearing loss in his left ear due to bleeding.