Jolie's bodyguards arrested after scuffle with parents during Indian film shoot

Indian police on Friday arrested three British bodyguards working for Angelina Jolie after they allegedly roughed up parents and students at a Mumbai school where the star was filming scenes for her latest movie, police said.

Photo: Jolie's bodyguards arrested after scuffle with parents during Indian film shoot

The fracas took place on Thursday afternoon when the gates of the Anjuman-e-Islam school, which had been locked during filming, were opened to let parents fetch their children.

M. H. Belose, additional chief metropolitan magistrate, later Friday freed the three bodyguards on bail and asked them not to leave the country for one week. They deposited bail guarantees for 25,000 rupees (US$545, Ђ450) each.

Belose also asked the three to report to local police every day for one week.

Witnesses said Jolie's bodyguards pushed and shoved some of the parents. Police prosecutor N. C. Tambe told the court that the three had upset people by calling them "bloody Indians," and "bloody Muslims ... they threatened to harm people."'

If convicted, the three can be jailed for up to three years.

Mahesh Jethmalani, attorney for the British bodyguards, said there was no reason for police to arrest them.

"They have come to India to shoot a film," Jethmalani told the court, denying claims they were abusive.

Police identified the bodyguards as Thomas McAdam, 47, Robert Dunn, 35, and Michael Brett, 50.

Dallington TV, a British production company that organized the shoot, blamed the scuffle on photographers and television cameramen that it said rushed the school to get pictures of Jolie.

It was the latest in a string of confrontations that Jolie's bodyguards have been involved in since the star arrived in India last month to film parts of "A Mighty Heart," a movie about slain American journalist Daniel Pearl.

In one incident, an Associated Press photographer alleged he was hit and threatened with a gun by one of her bodyguards, reports AP.

Another bodyguard was caught on video manhandling a British photographer, grabbing the man by his neck and verbally abusing him.

"A Mighty Heart" is based on a memoir written by Pearl's widow, Mariane. Pearl, who worked for The Wall Street Journal, was abducted and murdered in Pakistan in 2002 while researching a story on Islamic militancy.