Bollywood News

Hrithik Roshan is indebted to the police in more ways than one. The actor and his father, producer Rakesh Roshan, along with TV personality Shekhar Suman, lawyer Majeed Memon and an assortment of politicians, hoteliers, businessmen and ordinary citizens collectively owe the state Rs 2 crore for protection provided them by the police. The state government on Thursday submitted a list of 167 defaulters from across the state to the Bombay high court.Hearing a public interest litigation by city advocate M P Vashi on the government’s failure to recover its dues, a division bench comprising Chief Justice Harjit Singh Bedi and Justice V M Kanade directed the state to file an affidavit to detail the action taken by it.

Navi Mumbai resident Vijay Chaugule tops the list of defaulters, owing over Rs 23 lakh to the police. Film-maker Rakesh Roshan, who survived an attempt on his life by the Chhota Shakeel gang in 2000, owes them Rs 3.52 lakh, while actor son Hrithik owes Rs 3.40 lakh.Criminal lawyer Majeed Memon, who was recently appointed general-secretary of the NCP, owes Rs 2.72 lakh for the protection given to him after he was shot at by Ravi Pujari gangsters. Other defaulters include Ulhasnagar strongman Pappu Kalani’s son Om Kalani (Rs 4.86 lakh), ex-minister Anant Tare (Rs 5.07 lakh), hotelier Gurvinder Singh Bawa (Rs 5.99 lakh) and Sindhudurg MLA Shivram Dalvi (Rs 1.30 lakh).Assistant government pleader Vishal Phal told the court that the government had withdrawn security to many of the defaulters and issued notices of attachment of properties to recover dues.

There are two types of security provided by the police. The first is categorised security, where the government assesses the threat perception of a public figure and on its own provides armed guards or vehicles under categories A,B,C and C+ free of cost. The other type is non-categorised security and is given to individuals who seek security cover. The 167 defaulters are on this list.