Poonam Dhillon, Padmini Kolhapure respond to CINTAA ‘document chori’ allegations: Degrading to all 9,000 actors

Mumbai, Sep 12 (SocialNews.XYZ) The ongoing tussle within the Cine and TV Artistes’ Association (CINTAA) escalated further after allegations surfaced that office-bearers Poonam Dhillon and Padmini Kolhapure attempted to remove documents and other belongings from the association’s premises secretly.

Responding to the allegations, Poonam, Padmini and CINTAA vice-president C.P. Thakur, Abhay Bhargava, Jaya Bhattacharya addressed the controversy and spoke to IANS about the events surrounding the association.

Poonam said she and her colleagues were “shocked, disappointed and saddened” by the manner in which the internal dispute had unfolded, particularly because the people involved had worked together as a team until recently. “Its hurtful and degrading to not just CINTAA but also the 9000 actors associated,” said Poonam.

Abhay Bhargava, best known for playing Ishita’s father in the popular television show Yeh Hai Mohabbatein, was among the CINTAA members who top addressed the issue.

Speaking about the incident, the members said they were informed about the presence of police at the CINTAA premises and explained that their understanding was that the material was being shifted from one CINTAA office to another.

“I was kind of shocked. I said, ‘For what?’ They said that we have to shift the stuff from one office to another office. And that is our old office. From one centre office to another office.” (I was shocked and asked why the police were there. We were told that the stuff had to be shifted from one office to another, which was our old office)

They said this was the understanding among the members before they started loading the material.

“Ye humne discuss kiya tha. Aur phir humne stuff load karna shuru kiya.” (This is what we had discussed. And then we started loading the stuff.)

Speaking about an incident, one of the members clarified that they were not present at the time but had seen videos of the incident.

"They stopped our car by bringing theirs infront of ours and created a chaos whole trying to secure the documents and shift them," said Poonam.

The members also recalled the response of a police officer who was present at the spot, saying that the police had made it clear that deciding who was right or wrong was not within their jurisdiction.

Poonam said, “The officers said, ‘It is not our jurisdiction to decide whether you are right or wrong.’”.

They praised the police officer for being firm and clear in her approach.

“That lady cop was very stern. Very stern and very straightforward. Very clear on this thing — that whatever is right is right,” said Poonam.

(The woman police officer was very strict and straightforward. She was very clear that whatever is right should be treated as right)

The members also said that the police had intervened because of a possible law-and-order situation and were not there to decide the merits of the dispute.

The discussion came amid the larger CINTAA controversy, with allegations by Kunika Sadanand, Upasana Singh and counter-allegations being exchanged by Padmini Kolhapure, Poonam Dhillon between different factions of the association.

Poonam and Padmini have maintained that their actions were connected to the functioning of CINTAA and have strongly objected to the manner in which the internal dispute has played out publicly.

The CINTAA dispute has intensified in recent weeks, with its internal functioning, leadership and election process becoming subjects of allegations and claims. The matter remains before the courts as both sides continue to present their respective versions.

–IANS

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Source: IANS