Goons looking for Bhatt bash up guard

Three unidentified goons allegedly roughed up a watchman standing guard outside filmmaker Mahesh Bhatt’s Bandra apartment on Sunday. Anjanikumar Pande, the 21-year-old watchman, was manning the gate at around 8.15 am when a middle-aged man arrived in an autorickshaw and enquired about Bhatt.

On being told that the director was not around, the unidentified man asked for Pooja Bhatt. On being refused an answer, the man went away only to return 20 minutes later with two other accomplices.

The trio barged inside the complex where they roughed up the watchman and threatened him with a knife before fleeing from the scene.

Pande rushed to Bhatt’s sixth floor residence where he narrated the episode to his son, Rahul who asked him to lodge a police complaint. Sub-inspector Deepak Lukade of Bandra police station told DNA that a non-cognisable (NC) offence under section 506 (Criminal Intimidation) of IPC has been registered against the three unidentified men. A beat marshal has also been posted outside the six-storeyed Kyalimore building for added security, Lukade said.

It may be recalled that an unidentified goon had opened fire inside Bhatt’s Juhu office on July 13, 2006. However, no one was injured in the firing. That incident was purportedly the handiwork of underworld gangster Ravi Poojari.