Preity Zinta

Mumbai, Aug. 8 (PTI): Five youngsters from Pune were reprimanded today for making crank calls and sending SMSs to actor Preity Zinta in the name of Bollywood stars Shahrukh Khan and Salman Khan.

The youngsters, identified as Arif Mirza, Farooq Sheikh, Tausif Patel, Uday Nikalje and Silven Lobo, were called to Khar police station in western Mumbai and let off after a strong reprimand, police said.

“The complaint lodged by Zinta amounted to a non-cognisable offence and the youths did not have any criminal motive,” deputy commissioner of police Amitabh Gupta said.

Zinta had lodged a complaint at Khar police station on August 3, saying she was receiving abusive SMSs and phone calls, in which the sender identified himself variously as Shahrukh and Salman.

Gupta said initially it was established that the callers and senders were Pune-based. Later, a probe revealed that the phone of one Arif Mubarak Mirza, 21, from Pune was used.