New Delhi: Indian Premier League (IPL) player Luke Pomersbach was arrested Friday for allegedly molesting an American woman in a five-star hotel in the capital and beating up her fiance, police said.
The Australian player from the Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) team is alleged to have molested the woman at the ITC Maurya hotel here. Her fiance was beaten up by the player when he tried to stop him and was admitted to Primus hospital in the diplomatic area of the national capital, police said.
The IPL management, which just a day earlier was fielding questions on the fracas between Shah Rukh Khan and security personnel and officials at the Wankhede stadium in Mumbai, said it was not responsible for the behaviour of individual players.
Giving details of the incident, the woman told a television channel that the incident happened when Pomersbach, along with some others, joined them for a drink. She also alleged that the hotel staff did not cooperate with her in calling the police.
"We were staying in ITC (Maurya) and went downstairs to have few drinks with friends. The Australian guy was talking to my fiance that he would like to have few drinks with him... he tagged along and we did not want to say no," the woman told Headlines Today.
"We came up to our room, and I thought to leave the guys alone and walked towards my bedroom ... this guy caught hold of me and tried to molest me. My fiance tried to stop him," she said.
The woman said that when she asked the hotel staff to call the police, they lied about having done so, but never reported the incident.
"I called the operator and asked for help. I asked them to call the cops, she said I will call, but nobody came up. The manager came up after a couple of minutes and he kept telling me I will call the cops, which was a lie, no one called the cops until I called them myself after a while when I figured out the number," she said.
Reacting to the incident, IPL chairman Rajiv Shukla said: "We are not responsible for behaviour of individuals in hotels … what somebody was doing in some hotel we have nothing to do with it. IPL is not hosting any party and we have done away with such parties and there was no official party."
He denied that the IPL would take action and said the law should take its course. "Let the police decides what action to be taken," he said.
RCB owner Vijay Mallya said he regretted the incident. "RCB will give full cooperation to authorities for fair investigation and so that the case if disposed of in accordance with law. He (Pomersbach) won't be taking the field till the matter is sorted out."(IANS)(IANS)
