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Sharaab kitthe hai, Delhi Police ask Pammi Aunty

An outing to get paan turned into a nightmare for actor Ssumeir Pasricha, aka Pammi Aunty, and his friends who were waylaid by Delhi cops looking for 'maal' and finally had to pay money before they were let off

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It could have been just another instance of police harassing a group of friends, including a woman, on a not-so-late night in Delhi this week, threatening, intimidating and then leaving with Rs 600. But the cops hadn't reckoned with Pammi Aunty, the quintessential Punjabi aunty with rose-coloured glares and lilac rollers who has been stirring up a social media storm with her satirical videos.

It was Tuesday evening, Dussehra, around 10.30 p.m. when actor Ssumeir Pasricha, who plays the hilarious and acerbic Pammi Aunty, and his four friends were on their way back after getting paan from the vendor outside Claridges Hotel in central Delhi. Five cops on bikes allegedly stopped them and asked them to show the alcohol they were drinking. When they couldn't find any, they started looking for chitta, the codename for drugs, in the car. And when they couldn't find that either, they apparently asked for money.

Pasricha, who spoofed it all in his one-minute video "Sharaab Kitthe Hai" in which he gives Delhi Police two marks out of 10, says the cops were speaking in chaste Haryanvi. "My friends had picked me up from Taj Palace where I was staying for an event for a joy ride and a paan. We were driving back to the hotel when this happened on the road opposite Claridges… All of a sudden, we were surrounded by these cops and they started questioning us with complete disregard of the fact that there was a girl accompanying us," he told dna.

Unable to find any alcohol on them, the cops asked about chitta and one charged towards the co-driver's seat to search for the contraband in the glove compartment. "The woman friend was sitting on that seat but they did not show even the basic common courtesy, forget about respect for the law. Thankfully they did not ask her to get down but continued to rummage in the car, saying chitta kahan hai, chitta kahan hai," Pasricha said. The cops also asked them if they had any 'maal' with them.

Nitya Sharma, a Delhi High Court who was driving the car, had stepped out to "handle the situation"."I tried to reason with them that we were out only to have paan and were not carrying any drugs but they were unwilling to hear any of it. I even tried to drop a few names in a bid to prevent the entire situation from escalating but to no avail," he recounted.

"A few minutes into this, one of the elderly guys among them said, vakeel saab, it is Dussehra today. Festival hai. Humein kuch toh de do," he added. "Since I was worried about our safety and also because a female was accompanying us, I offered them Rs.500. They insisted on taking more and ultimately, the negotiation led to me coughing up Rs.600," Sharma told dna.

Sharma ensured that neither Pasricha nor the woman came out of the car. "I was worried that the moment they recognise him (Pasricha), it could blow up into anything. In hindsight, I think that if they were so shameless about demanding money, they could have planted something in the car and booked us under NDPS. I shudder to think what could have happened," he said.

When contacted by this newspaper, Special Commissioner Mukesh Kumar Meena said he would look into the matter and bring the "guilty to book".

Meanwhile, Pammi Aunty continues to make waves.

The video, in which he narrates what has happened to his 'Sarla Bahenji', Pammi Aunty's unseen confidant who has become just as famous, has generated huge response, said Pasricha. "My inbox and Facebook wall are full of messages from people who have told their tales of harassment and bribery by Delhi Police. The common sentiment is 'been there, done that'. My idea of making the video is not to garner any publicity but to send a message to the bosses that they need to clean up," he said.

Watch the video here: 

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