Originally posted by sun_423
Salman Khan at the Jaipur Marathon
Shweta Thakur & Divya Kaushik, TNN, 26 January 2010, 12:00am IST
Although the Jaipur marathon was held to highlight the cause of preserving the city's heritage and making it a world class city, with actors Salman Khan, Bina Kak and
Rajiv Khandelwal who flagged off the marathon.
Salman Khan and
Rajiv Khandelwal marking their presence, however, things turned ugly at the event due to an unruly crowd.
At one point, when the crowd went berserk and started throwing bottles and teasing women, who were also participating in the marathon, the police had to resort to a mild lathicharge. The marathon scheduled to mark the end of the ten-day heritage festival on Sunday kicked off at 7.30 am from Ram Niwas Bagh and was scheduled to end at the Rambagh Circle. But it had to be discontinued midway when the crowd went berserk on its way to the World Trade Park in Malaviya Nagar.
With actor Rajiv Khandelwal flagging off the half marathon and state tourism minister Bina Kak and Salman Khan together flagging off the full marathon, the event started on a positive note with a huge turn-out of Jaipurites who waved and cheered the actors for quite some time.
The next stop was to be the World Trade Park and the actors, who were given security were being escorted to the place in a car, even as the participants ran on the road and it was then that the crowd became unruly. The actors' car was turned around when the news of the chaos was heard by the organisers. In fact, JT reporters and other mediapersons too had to face eve-teasing and misbehaviour from the rowdy crowd. When JT reporters complained to a cop, who was witnessing all this he said, "What can we do, hum toh khud hi bahut dukhi hain."
When we tried to bring the inefficiency of the cop to the notice of a senior police official, Om Prakash, who was giving instructions to officials at a gate in front of the Albert Hall, he said, "Challo Apna kam karo. Jaise log hote hain waise hi handle karna padta hai."
Khandelwal later told JT over phone, "I was surprised by the huge turn-out of people. It was very encouraging. However, I heard about the chaos and youngsters misbehaving with girls. All this is belittling for the city and its ethics. Such things are disgraceful. The cause is important and I hope people understand the gravity of making Jaipur a world-class city." http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/entertainment/filmi-parties/bollywood/Salman-Khan-at-the-Jaipur-Marathon/articleshow/5499015.cms