Actor Jimmy Shergill booked for defying Covid lockdown in Punjab

Actor Jimmy Shergill and national award-winning director Eeshwar Nivas were among 35 crew members booked for defying the Covid lockdown while shooting for the web series, Your Honor, in Ludhiana on Tuesday night.

Sub inspector Harjit Singh said that 150 crew members were shooting for the series at Arya Senior Secondary School in Ludhiana at 8pm, two hours after curfew had been enforced to check the spread of Covid-19. The lockdown has been imposed from 6pm to 5am in Punjab to curb the spread of the pandemic.

Nivas and crew members Akashdeep Singh and Mandeep Singh were arrested and granted bail. When the police reached, a court scene was being shot for the second season of Your Honor in which Shergill plays the role of a judge. It is an adaptation of an Israeli web series by the same name.

A case has been registered at the division number 1 police station under Sections 188 (disobedience to order duly promulgated by public servant) and 269 (negligent act likely to spread infection of disease dangerous to life) of the Indian Penal Code and Section 3 of the Epidemic Diseases Act.

The school authorities said that the crew had received permission from the Ludhiana commissioner of police Rakesh Agrawal for shooting the scene on the premises. School principal Rajinder Kumar said, "We allowed the crew to shoot for the series after they got the permission from the commissioner of police. The production team had sought permission for 10 days between April 23 and May 2 and were shooting at different places on the campus."

Insisting that the school had been sanitised before the shooting began, he said: "We told them to abide by the Covid-19 protocol and shooting was on in the prayer ground, which has a capacity for 800 people. Our school was established in 1849 and has an old colonial structure. We don't charge anything from anyone who uses the premises for shooting. Many movies have been filmed here."