Third notice issued to TV show producers over use of cobra

Mumbai: The Thane forest department (TFD) this week is set to send a third and final notice to the producers of the daily soap Nagarjun — Ek Yoddha, ordering them to present themselves before its officials. The show allegedly used a cobra, a protected reptile, in one of its shoots last October.

The producers have been accused of not cooperating with the department’s probe in tracking down the owner who supplied the snake for the shoot. The crew and the producer did not appear before the authorities even though they had been summoned twice.

According to sources, the department has its eye on some suspects and is keen on interrogating them. “There are few people who, despite being summoned, have not turned up even once. They have been giving excuses ever since they were called and apparently are not in town, which is highly suspicious,” said a senor TFD official.  

Santosh Kank, a range forest officer, said, “A few people linked to the case have been giving excuses from the start of the month. Moreover, we had called all the people, present during the cake cutting celebration along with the producer, on Wednesday but no one turned up. This happened for the second consecutive time and will not be tolerated. Hence, I will be sending a notice to them.”

Officials from the department want to interrogate everyone who was present for the celebration, as they suspect that a few of them have information about the owner of the snake. Yash Patnaik, the producer of Nagarjun, had last appeared in front of the forest department on March 17. The department sought the attendance sheet of the crew working on the day of the incident and summoned a former co-producer on or before
March 30.