Shruti Ulfat's video with cobra goes viral; actress denies being arrested

Pic Courtesy: Twitter

New Delhi: Popular face on Indian television Shruti Ulfat has hogged the limelight for not so great reasons. The actress, who has appeared in a number of daily soaps and Bollywood films recently got into trouble with the Forest Department for allegedly mishandling a cobra on her show's sets, reportedly.

According to DNA, a video featuring Shruti playing with a cobra went viral lately and soon afterwards it caught the attention of several NGOs and activists slamming the incident. The report mentions that Wildlife Welfare officials have alleged that the cobra was illegally used on the sets of her television show 'Nagarjun Ek Yodha'.

Also, it mentions that besides Shruti, other actors from the show including Nitin Solanki, Utkarsh Bali and Pearl V Puri, were held for violation of Wildlife Act 1972, sections 9, 39, 48a, 51 on Thursday.

DNA originally attributes the report to IndiaForums, where Shruti has finally spoken her side of the story. She has been quoted as saying, “ We are not arrested; it so happened that we posted a picture with Cobra during our Nagarjuna shoot and I was not aware that time that it’s illegal to post an image like that. Otherwise, why will I do such a thing and get into a hassle unnecessarily! We are going to forest station for our statements and its been 4 months already”.

According to PTI, Thane forest department arrested the actress for posing with a cobra and posting the pictures as well as a video online in October 2016. She was produced before a court today which granted her bail on a bond of Rs 5,000. "It was alleged that she deals in endangered species and makes profit from it. But as a professional actor all she had done was to promote her TV serial on social media platforms," said Shruti's lawyer Sunny Punamiya.

The viral videos have been shared on Twitter. Check out here: 

Forest Dept say that production manager nd actress said this snake was special effect bt forensic tests cnfrmd it was real @dna pic.twitter.com/DIfosxGhZO — Virat A Singh (@singhvirat246) February 8, 2017

Ths is d video that got Shruti Ulfat in trouble nd angered animal activists who complained 2 forest dept @PAWSMumbai @RAWW_TWEETS @dna pic.twitter.com/FBdAwfTXFU — Virat A Singh (@singhvirat246) February 8, 2017