Mumbai arrests 69 Sikhs for ransacking MTV office

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(Xinhua)
Updated: 2008-06-17 15:01

MUMBAI -- Local police in Mumbai arrested 69 members of the Sikhs community for their alleged attacks on the office of music channel MTV on Tuesday. They had been released on bail.

Around 100 members of the Sikh community attacked the office of music channel MTV in central Mumbai on Monday to protest against a "defamatory" poster, minorly injuring one of the MTV staffers, local police said.

The poster, which was put up all over Mumbai to advertise the music channels new career-based reality show "On the Job", portrayed a woman massaging a Sikh man who peeped through a door. The poster read "Jobs your parents won't understand".

"The poster has offended members of the Sikh community. They reached the office to ask MTV to pull down the hoardings but there was an argument which later led to stone throwing and destruction of property," said Sunil Deshmukh, senior police inspector of Matunga police station. "They have now been released on bail."

"We have no idea about their objective or motive behind this act. We have lodged a complaint with the necessary law enforcement agency," said Aashish Patil, general manager of MTV India on Tuesday.

The protesters broke into MTV office and went on rampage, said an MTV staffer, adding that they tore posters, broke in after damaging a glass entrance, dragged the furniture placed in the lobby on to the road and then destroyed it while shouting slogans.

"They overturned the reception desk and even threw computers and other equipment inside the office. We are completely taken aback," said the staffer.