Heeba Shah, the 49-year-old daughter of Naseeruddin Shah, has been accused of assaulting two animal welfare workers at Versova in Bombay. As a result, two non-cognisable complaints were lodged against her. According to a trustee of The Feline Foundation NGO, Mridu Khosla, “Two female workers were slapped, boxed and pushed by Heeba Shah on 16th January, when she came with two cats that needed to be sterilised.” Mridu added, the workers had politely asked Heeba to wait for a few minutes as another cat’s surgery was going on, but she became angry and impatient. When Heeba was asked to sign the consent form, she became even more angry and allegedly hit two workers. The incident was captured on CCTV cameras.
According to Heeba, the altercation took place in the heat of the moment. She said, a friend of hers had booked an appointment but she (Heeba) went as her friend could not go. “The staff was extremely rude. I tried explaining that my friend had sought the appointment but they asked me to wait. When I peeped into the preparation room and saw very unhygienic surroundings, I decided to leave. At this, they were rude to me and pushed me and my cats out. I did shove one of the employees back and she struck her head on the wall. I did feel bad about it afterwards.”