Mumbai: Poonam Dhillon has addressed the recent viral clash involving the Cine & TV Artistes’ Association (CINTAA), defending the organisation’s actions and explaining its stand on safeguarding members’ documents.
The veteran actress and CINTAA representative questioned what was wrong with the association taking steps to protect its members’ documents amid the controversy.
“We were taking CINTAA papers to the CINTAA office. That office of CINTAA is the registered office in all our documents. Even with the trade union, that is our registered office, where we took our documents for safeguard,” Poonam was quoted as saying by HT.
Poonam stressed that the documents contained years of records belonging to thousands of CINTAA members.
“Our files were not just eight files. These are records of 7,000 to 8,000 members, and they span several years. It is not just information from the last one or two years,” she said.
Clarifying the association’s stance, she added, “What are we taking? Are we taking the property? No, we are taking our CINTAA members’ information, their KYCs. We do not want that to be compromised and fall into the hands of unscrupulous people.”
Poonam alleged that the incident escalated, describing the confrontation as “rude, violent and abusive” and claiming that their cars were blocked.
“Yesterday, we filed an NC against them. Because they were very rude and violent and abusive and all that kind of stuff against us. They blocked our cars,” she said.
Speaking about her interaction with Upasana Singh, Poonam said the viral footage does not show the events that took place immediately before the recording began.
She said, “Upasana Singh, who was my general secretary till a month ago, is shoving her phone in my face and saying, ‘Yes, yes, we will shoot.’ I said, ‘Upasana, no, stop this, don’t do this.’ So I put my hand on her phone,” she said, denying that she tried to snatch or damage it. “I just held her hand out of the phone and she is screaming from there, ‘Look, look, hold my hand, look at me.’”
Earlier, Upasana had alleged that Poonam and Padmini were attempting to conceal irregularities in the documents they took away.
Responding to the allegation, Poonam questioned what irregularities Upasana was referring to and pointed to CINTAA’s financial procedures.
She explained that the accounts were regularly presented before the executive committee and added that she had herself suggested conducting audits more frequently.
“I’m the one who suggested that let’s not wait for an audit for one year. Let’s do a quarterly audit. Let’s get the auditor to come every three months, audit everything,” she said.
Poonam clarified that the only information they withheld was the personal details of donors from the RK show, respecting their request to keep their identities private.
She further claimed that the ongoing dispute has impacted CINTAA’s finances, alleging that the association’s bank accounts have been frozen.
“Ever since this matter has started we have been taking care of all the CINTAA related funds by our pockets. These people have blocked all our office accounts. We have not been able to pay people their salaries. Today we have no working bank account,” she said.
She further said that the ongoing situation has impacted CINTAA’s welfare and medical assistance programmes for members.
Poonam also questioned the validity of the CINTAA election held on September 12 and raised concerns about FWICE’s involvement in the association’s internal affairs.
“FWICE has no business interfering in CINTAA’s internal matters according to their constitution and according to our constitution,” she said.
The Poonam-Padmini faction had challenged the election in court. While the poll was allowed to proceed, its outcome remains subject to the ongoing legal proceedings.
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