On Monday morning, former Mumbai cricketer Harmeet Singh drove his car onto a platform at Andheri station in Mumbai. He was then detained by the Railway Police Force (RPF) and was later released. However, by 11am, news agencies and social media was abuzz with news that he got there because he was driving under influence and that he was also arrested by the cops.
No one bothered to get his side of the story. However, Harmeet finally opened up about the incident in a conversation with Scroll.in.
“I was detained and not arrested and I paid a fine of Rs 7,000 and released by the court,” said Harmeet.
The incident occurred at around 7:30 am with the platform hardly seeing a huge crowd of commuters. “They were hardly any people at 7 am and the day was just starting. How can it be peak hours at that time? Peak hours are usually after 8. The previous incident that happened three months back at the station occurred in the afternoon. So imagine. My friends said it was normal because a lot of rickshaw drivers do it as well,” said Harmeet.
Clearly not pleased
Harmeet was clearly not pleased by the media attention he received. “They are portraying me as a terrorist. You do a test of drunk driving when the person is tipsy or high. I was on my way for training. I was in my practice attire and wasn’t in any party wear or something. I stopped when I realized my mistake and it was impossible to reverse at that time. A coolie told me to reverse and get out the other way. As I was trying to turn the car the RPF people came and stopped me,” said Harmeet.
Harmeet said that even the judge that was hearing his case wasn’t surprised at the incident. “The first question the judge asked was ‘Abhi tak barricade nahi lagaya vahan? Ek aur case ho gaya vahan’, these were his words,” he said.
According to reports, even the railways official are to be blamed because this is the second such incident to have occurred. They are yet to put up the barricade and also install CCTV cameras in the vicinity.
“My trainer was waiting in the gym at my training centre at Kandivali. I had gone to Bandra to drop a relative. So I was on my way back when this occurred,” said Harmeet.
Get the facts right
Talking about the mistaken identity issue with Bhopal cricketer Harpreet Singh, Harmeet was stunned by the development as well. “You quote the wrong guy, you write about the wrong guy and you put the wrong picture. That is basically jumping to conclusions. You write what has happened. You write the car was driven onto the platform and you write Harmeet was driving the guy but don’t write what you don’t know. You don’t know whether it is a drink and drive case.”
He chuckled when he read a quotes of a RPF officer stating that he was from Punjab and new to the city. “I am born and brought up in Mumbai. It was very funny. I was just trying to park my car and I was mislead by someone. That is what happened,” said Harmeet.