Detained Churchill Brothers footballers to be produced in Mumbai court
By ANIWednesday, January 6, 2010
MUMBAI - The three footballers of Goa’s Churchill Brothers team, who had been arrested and accused of allegedly molesting a SpiceJet airhostess were given bail on Wednesday morning and will be produced in a Mumbai city court today.
The SpiceJet airhostess had charged the three of allegedly molesting her and using abusive language.
With both sides making allegations and the team management defending its players, the Mumbai police lodged an FIR in the case.
The three accused have claimed innocence and say that the airhostess is lying.
The crew onboard flight SG 804 from Goa to Kolkata via Mumbai lodged a complaint late on Tuesday evening, accusing the football players of misbehaving with an airhostess.
The players Odafa Okolie, Arindam Bhattacharya and Kalu Nnanna were offloaded at the Mumbai airport and later booked under sections of the IPC on charges of outraging a woman’s modesty.
However, coach of the of the team refuted all the charges and said that it was a major mistake.
“It is a big misunderstanding, a big mistake of the girl from SpiceJet. Because I was behind, my seat 10 E and their seat was 9. And Odafa and Felix were just talking; Odafa and Felix were beside in the corridor. And that time girl passed. Their hands touched her, but it was not intentional. She did not complain at that time,” said Carlos Silva, the coach of ‘Churchill Brothers’.
“She went away and talked to a boy inside the flight. And I got surprise because the boy came shouting at Odafa. Of course both Odafa and Felix did not agree as they had not done it intentionally, I am correct and can assure that,” he added.
Churchill Brothers club owner Joaquim Alemao said: “All my players are innocent. I stand by them. How can one molest someone in a flight full of people? I will file a defamation case against SpiceJet. They should not have offloaded my whole team. The match in Kolkata will not be possible if they continue holding up my players,” said club owner Churchill Alemao. (ANI)
