Snake comes back to bite Naagarjun team
The daily soap cast said pictures were posted on social media on completion of 100 episodes.
Mumbai: The Thane forest department on Wednesday arrested two actors, Shruti Ulfat and Pearl Puri along with two production managers for a day for using a real snake in their daily soap Naagarjun, and posing with it on social media. They were produced in a court in Borivali.
The department wants custody of the four accused for seven days and will be producing them in the court again on Thursday.
The Mumbai territorial range of Thane forest department had lodged an FIR against the actors of Nagaarjun, which airs in one of the leading Indian television channels, after the forensic reports stated that the series used a real snake as against portraying one through special effects as claimed earlier.
The anti-poaching unit of the Thane forest department had, in October, inspected the set of Naagarjun, located at Film City, after an Instagram picture of its actors holding a protected (schedule 2) spectacled cobra went viral on October 17. The management had, however, insisted then that they had used special effects to display the snakes. A few activists had alerted the forest department about actors posing with a ‘spectacled cobra’ around their neck and hands. According to the team, the pictures were posted as a celebration on the completion of 100 episodes.
A soon as the forensic reports were out, First Information Report (FIR) was registered under section 9, 39, 48 and 51 of Wildlife Protection Act (WPA) 1972, on January 17.
The team of the daily soap had reported that the pictures posted on social networking site (Instagram) due to special effects and wasn’t a real snake. The Forest officials then investigated the matter and sent a screenshot of the post on Instagram to the Kalina forensic laboratory for identifying whether the snake picture used in the post was that of the real snake.
Santosh Kank, Range Forest Officer of Thane forest department said, “Our investigation aims to locate the snake supplier along with his snake.
Though the four accused deny knowing the man, they have assured that they would be able to identify the person if brought before them.”