Mumbai, Sep 25 (TOI): About two weeks after the city administration registered a first information report under against small-screen comedian Kapil Sharma for making illegal alterations to his apartment in Oshiwara, the police from the area conducted a panchnama on Thursday of the ninth-floor residence at DLH Enclave.
The cops have summoned Sharma in the week that begins today so they can record his statement.
According to the Oshiwara police officials, the panchnama started around 11am, by a team of four police officials and another two from the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation. As the inspecting party stepped out on to the ninth floor, they came across a parking area before the entrance to Sharma's apartment. Though Sharma was not present at the time, his house help opened the door to receive them.
During the inspection, several changes were found to have been made in the structure of the apartment. At many places, rooms had been pulled down to increase space. The kitchen, which was initially near the entrance of the flat, was knocked down and set up next to the bedroom. This was reportedly done to increase the area of the passage which leads to the hall. Next, a wall had been pulled down to enlarge the bedroom. Then a small room near the hall — or which was part of the hall — was demolished to allow more area for the hall.
Furthermore, Sharma covered nearly half of the refugee area with unauthorised extensions to his flat, which is a gross violation of construction rules. In total, nearly three walls were torn down and the room sizes were altered.
Earlier the police had issued notices under the Maharashtra Regional and Town Planning (MRTP) Act to Sharma, actor Irrfan Khan who has a flat on the fifth floor of the same building, and four others including the developer to record their statements as part of the investigation into the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation's claims of illegal alterations allegedly made in Oshiwara's Dev Land Housing or DLH society. The building has 17 floors, each with its own parking area.
After the police finished inspecting Sharma's premises, they videographed the entire apartment and preserved the evidence. Senior inspector Subhash Khanvilkar of Oshiwara police station said, "We have called Kapil Sharma to record his statement. Once we have that we will submit a complete report."
Sharma had been called for interrogation earlier but he told the police officials that he was in Malaysia and would be returning this week.
The revenue department has also lodged an FIR against Sharma for destroying mangroves by making unauthorised extensions to his office-bungalow in Versova. The action came after a report by the forest department's mangroves conservation cell submitted to the district collector nailed the comic for the violating environmental norms.
Earlier, Sharma had sailed into controversy by tweeting that BMC officials were demanding a Rs 5-lakh bribe from him. He had tagged Prime Minister Narendra Modi in the tweet, which kicked up a storm in the city administration as politicos demanded that he furnish proof of his allegation or face a defamation suit. The tweet came after civic officials tore down illegal extensions in his Versova office on August 4.