10 days on, no one meets Bajrangi Bhaijaan actor Alka Kaushal, her mother in Sangrur jail

It has been 10 days since actor Alka Kaushal, known for playing the mother of Kareena Kapoor’s character in Salman Khan-starrer Bajrangi Bhaijaan (2015), and her mother Susheela Badola were sentenced to two years’ imprisonment in a cheque-bounce case by a Sangrur court, but no relative or friend has come to meet them in the district jail.

On Saturday, their lawyers met them and planned to move the Punjab and Haryana high court for appeal against the conviction.

Kaushal, who has worked in TV and Bollywood, also played the mother of Kangana Ranaut’s character in Queen (2014). She has been replaced in some TV shows since her sentencing. She is a daughter of renowned theatre artist Vishwa Mohan S Badola, and sister of Varun Badola who has worked in shows like Koshish Ek Asha and Des Mein Nikla Hoga Chand.

“They have been kept in jail like the other prisoners. We are not giving them any VIP treatment,” said Hardeep Singh Bhatti, jail superintendent, confirming that no one other than their lawyers had met them. They are sleeping on blankets spread out on the floor and eating the jail food.

A Sangrur court had upheld the two years’ jail term awarded to Kaushal and her mother by a lower court of Malerkotla on July 5. The case is that the two women borrowed Rs 50 lakh from a farmer, Avtar Singh, of Langrian village, to make a TV serial, but the plan was dropped. When he demanded his money back, they gave him two cheques of Rs 25 lakh each which were dishonoured.

Singh, who ran a floriculture business and had befriended Kaushal during a shooting schedule, then moved a local court in Malerkotla in 2015, which sentenced the duo to two years’ jail.

They moved the Sangrur court for relief, but the additional sessions judge upheld the lower court’s order.