Actress Heeba Shah assaults 2 vet clinic staff, says 'they started it'

A CCTV grab shows Heeba Shah (in yellow) assaulting a staffer; (right) another grab shows Shah assaulting another employee who rushed to the aid of the other staffer

The Versova police have registered a non-cognisable offence against actress Heeba Shah for allegedly assaulting two employees of a veterinary clinic. Shah, who is the daughter of noted actor Naseeruddin Shah, allegedly assaulted them on January 16. The incident was captured in the CCTV at the clinic and the footage has been given to the Versova police.

The Feline Foundation runs a clinic at Versova. Supriya Sharma, a friend of Shah, booked an appointment for the sterilisation of her two cats at the clinic. As Sharma couldn't be there, she got Shah to take her cats there.

'Physical abuse was harsh'
Speaking to mid-day, Mriidu Khosla, a trustee of The Feline Foundation said, "On January 16 at 2.50 pm actress Heeba Shah walked into our community veterinary clinic with two cats for sterilisation. Our clinic caretaker asked her to wait for 5 minutes as a surgery was on. After 2-3 minutes of waiting she aggressively said to our staff members, "Don't you know who I am? How can you make me wait for so long outside without any assistance? How come no one helped me to get my cats' cage out of the rickshaw on arrival?"

Heeba Shah

This can be seen in the CCTV footage. On being asked to sign the consent forms for the surgery before we admitted the cats, she got extremely abusive about the system and the place."

"A senior staff member asked her to leave the premises with her cats, after she began to verbally abuse us for no reason. She also slapped and assaulted two female staff members. The physical abuse was harsh, extremely violent and disturbing to say the least," Khosla further said.

The Versova police registered the NC under Sections 323 (voluntarily causing hurt), 504 (intentional insult) and 506 (criminal intimidation) on January 17.

'I hit them, but they started it'
Shah said, "I did hit them, but they started it. The gatekeeper didn't allow me to enter the clinic and asked several questions. I told him that I had an appointment. In the clinic when I told the attendant about the watchman, she also started abusing me and speaking rudely. Then one of the women there pushed me and told me to get out from the premises immediately. This is not the way to speak to anyone who is visiting the clinic. The lady in the clinic started fighting with me. The clinic staff should talk politely to customers visiting their clinic."

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