Dubai: A group of Chennai Super Kings cheerleaders were left shell-shocked on Tuesday after Raipur police raided their hotel rooms, according to reports in a leading English daily in India.
According to a news report in The Times of India, the police officials stormed the hotel where the girls were staying and questioned them for around an hour. They called it a “routine check” despite not possessing a warrant.
Hotel staff labelled the raid as part of “strong-arm tactics” without “any evidence”.
The cheerleaders, mostly from England and Australia, were in the city for the Indian Premier League (IPL) match between the Chennai Super Kings and the Delhi Daredevils on Tuesday. Guests and media personnel staying at the same hotel were not spared during the raid.
Shaken by the police move, the cheerleaders called the event management company behind their association with the IPL.
“It’s ridiculous that we are being treated like this by the cops,” one of the cheerleaders said. “They could have contacted our event manager directly rather than rushing straight to our rooms. We all have work permits and we have been associated with Bollywood. We have never had such a bad experience in India.”
Following an IPL spot-fixing controversy, cheerleaders are required to stay in hotel different from the one which the team they represent is lodged in.
A police official insisted the raid was a “routine check”.
“We were informed about some foreign girls checking in a hotel under Kotwali Police circle,” Anshuman Singh Sisodiya, City Superintendent of Police at the Kotwali Police circle, said. “A team led by [a] senior police official visited the hotel and checked the rooms of the girls just to make sure there wasn’t anything suspicious.”
