Nasreen Sattar

CCTV cameras

high-profile families

Hajee Abdul Sattar Sait

Bowring Institute

CCTV footage

grocery items

The incident in which Nasreen Sattar screamed at staff was captured byat the departmental store inside the club premisesScion of one of the city's mostis in the eye of a club-class storm. Nasreen Sattar, daughter ofwho pioneered the city's first mall, Safina Plaza, near Commercial Street in the mid-80s, has been suspended from one of Bangalore's premier clubs,, on charges of misbehaviour in its premises.The alleged incident and its aftermath have been the talking point among the club's mostly chic members since it broke out on May 29. The allegation of high-handed behaviour by Nasreen has been levelled by the manager and staff of the departmental store in the club premises.Nasreen, on her part, has defended her actions saying she was provoked and has made a counter-complaint (the cops say it was an oral plaint; she says it is a written one) to the Cubbon Park police. Her complaint comes two days after the department store manager, P Karthikeyan, took up the matter of her alleged misbehaviour with the club management and the latter acted on it the following day by suspending her membership. She denied having received any suspension letter from the club.In the letter, a copy of which is with Bangalore Mirror, H S Srikanth, honorary secretary of Bowring Institute, has said, “Your actions are recorded in theand have been audio recorded. After preliminary inquiry, it is found that your actions without any provocation, your loud abuses and threat are in serious violation of the rules and decorum of the institute. Pending further inquiry, you are suspended from the membership of the institute with immediate effect.”Talking to BM later, Srikanth said, ‘‘She has been suspended for three months. Her behaviour will be under intense watch for one year after the suspension period is over. She has been issued a strict warning.‘‘ He spoke to us after the club management conducted an inquiry in which both sides were heard.Cubbon Park police too is looking into the incident and sources said the manager of departmental store has given a copy of the CCTV footage to the police.As per the departmental store staff, she initially sent her maid to exchange fouron Thursday morning. However, as the maid had reportedly no purchase bill the staff refused to oblige.That apparently brought Nasreen herself to the store. She allegedly threw her weight around and launched a verbal attack first on a staff at the cash counter, Kalaiselvi, and then on Karthikeyan. The store lodged a complaint with the Bowring Institute management the same day.Here is the text of the letter by Karthikeyan ad verbatim: “Mrs.Nasreen Sattar, member of the prestigious club, had come to departmental store. She wanted to exchange with the new products at our store when my staff refused and asked for bill, which she was instructed to follow procedure. Immediately, she started to scold me and my staff (Kalaiselvi, who is our cashier) with all foul languages (F*****g b*****d etc.) and threatening me and my staff to kill us break all our bones. Her maid who was also present with her stole cashew nuts from store, enclosed is the cctv footage of the same. She has been indulging in this type of activity and exchange of items after usage from last few months. Every time we try to reason out she extend threats to our staffs. Sir, we have this entire episode of our video footage and also have audio recorded. This is not the first time this has happened. She has overdue to our stores. Kindly take this as priority and give justices.”Uday Bhaskar, inspector, Cubbon park police station told Bangalore Mirror, “She has complained to us orally and said some video and other stuff pertaining to the incident has ben uploaded on YouTube. When we asked her to show it to us, she didn’t. However we have asked the departmental store people to get video footage of the incident and are probing it.”It’s all a conspiracy to defame me by certain committee members of the Bowring Institute and a man whose marriage proposal I spurned a few months ago,'' said Nasreen Sattar in her defence. ''My maid Sakina visited the Nilgiri’s bakery on May 29, where she was subjected to various kinds of harassment; being an independent woman I refused to take such atrocious behaviour lying down. When my maid asked to buy some items, she was denied them and the manager instead manhandled her and pushed her out. She came crying to me and that’s when I walked in, and asked the manager for an explanation. He began abusing us and said I could go complain to whoever I wanted,”said Nasreen.When Nasreen and her maid were walking out of the store, she claimed, the manager telephoned her saying she had a pending balance of Rs10,000. “This is absolutely untrue, because I am one of their most high-end customers and I recently spent as much as Rs 75,000 at their store. Why would I ask for credit or have an outstanding balance? At the most, I may have Rs 400-500 pending with them. Where are the receipts with my signatures on them for proof?”Nasreen said she approached the Cubbon Park police with a handwritten complaint but since the power went off she was forced to return home as she felt ‘vulnerable’ being alone at the station after 7.30 pm.“I submitted a written complaint to the Cubbon Park inspector in March against three committee members, who were constantly harassing and heckling me. I have also received an acknowledgement, but no action has been taken. The trio warned me that they would teach me a lesson; and this is what it has come to. I also received a call from a man claiming to be the owner of the Nilgiris store. He abused me for the incident, and all I said to him was that he should take up the matter with the club president and secretary,” she said, her voice trembling.She said that she cannot be issued a suspension order without having slapped a show-cause notice. “The only official letter regarding this incident states that my suspension order is pending inquiry. On Monday, the club president Arun Bajaj and secretary Srikanth chaired a meeting with the other committee members where this incident was discussed; and I am very glad to say that both the president and secretary showed their unwavering solidarity and support for me saying that a woman needs to be treated with dignity and respect. My father has also had a word with them, and if this issue looks like it will go out of hand, we are ready to resign as members of the Bowring Club,” she signed off resolutely.