Four held for manhandling media persons at Harbhajan wedding

Punjab Police have arrested four bouncers who allegedly manhandled media persons covering the wedding events of Indian cricketer Harbhajan Singh and his actress bride Geeta Basra, an official said on Friday.

The case was registered after the upset media persons staged a sit-in outside the reception venue in Jalandhar city, 150 km from Chandigarh, demanding immediate arrest of the four bouncers. The manhandling allegedly took place late on Thursday evening.

"We have arrested four bouncers. These include Kuldip, Gurpreet, Navjot and Bawan," a police official told IANS here.

After the alleged incident, Harbhajan came out of the house and apologised on behalf of the bouncers. He pleaded with media, mostly camera persons of TV channels and photographers of media publications, not to pursue the matter further.

The media persons alleged that the bouncers manhandled them, and took away and broke their cameras and equipment while they were filming events at the high-profile wedding of off-spinner Harbhajan Singh with Bollywood actress Geeta Basra.

"We registered a case following a complaint from the media persons. We are investigating the matter," a Punjab Police officer told the media here.

"We had instructions from Harbhajan that media should not be allowed inside the house as a lot of VIP guests and celebrities were to arrive," one of the bouncers claimed.

Harbhajan Singh, fondly called 'Bhajji', married his long-time friend Geeta Basra on Thursday near this Punjab town. He belongs to Jalandhar city.

Batting legend Sachin Tendulkar and his wife Anjali, and founder and chairperson of the Reliance Foundation Nita Ambani, who is also the owner of Indian Premier League (IPL) Twenty20 team Mumbai Indians, for whom Harbhajan plays, were among the dignitaries at the wedding.

While Geeta was wearing a red 'lehenga', designed by Archana Kochhar, Bhajji adorned a sherwani and red turban. Bhajji drove in for the wedding in his black Hummer SUV.

Captain of the limited overs Indian team, Mahendra Singh Dhoni was conspicuously absent from the wedding.

But cricketers Parthiv Patel, R.P. Singh and Pragyan Ojha were among those who were present.

"I am feeling great, very special day of my life," the 35-year-old cricketer told reporters.

The wedding reception will be held in a five-star hotel in Delhi on November 1 and is likely to be attended by celebrities from cricket and Bollywood, a family member told.

(Source: IANS)