Chaos at mall as ad draws a mob

They were promised Rs1,000 each by firm

VASHI: A marketing strategy to “increase footfalls” at the City Centre mall in Vashi ended in chaos on Saturday. A financial company put out an ad promising to hand over Rs1000 to people in exchange for their names and addresses at the mall. People started pouring in on the appointed day. By 2pm, things got out of hand when villagers from areas like Belapur, Darave and Karave arrived and started queuing up outside the mall to collect a thousand bucks each.

The mall was shut down as the management felt the mob was getting out of control. Other shoppers found themselves stuck inside, while the crowd  outside vented their anger until the cops were called to disperse them.

Shahul Kadar, general manager of City Centre mall, says, “Around 30,000 people had gathered and we had to shut down the mall as we thought things could go out of control. We tried our best to restrain the mob, but it became increasingly difficult to do so. The event had to be called off finally.”

Earlier, trucks filled with villagers arrived at the mall. Then they started gathering outside the mall.

Security officers at the mall found it hard to contain them, so the police had to be called in. The villagers had been standing for approximately 2-3 hours and in the ensuing chaos, many fainted while few others got hurt. However, the crowd remained unmoved till almost 3.30 pm. Three vehicles were reported to have been damaged.

Many who had come to shop were disappointed to find the mall closed. Kharghar resident Rucha Dhami said, “My college begins on July 7 and I had come down to shop at Globus, but was surprised to find such a maddening mob and thought there must be some mishap at City Centre. I found out soon that some financial company had come up with a scheme, which was the cause of the commotion.” Other disappointed shoppers changed their minds about shopping at City Centre and went to other malls.

At the end of it all, the financial company did not even give away any money as promised. Darshika Pandya, the events and marketing manager of City Centre, said “We hoped the crowd would be disciplined, but finally decided to call it off.” As for the shoppers stuck inside, they were evacuated through the emergency exit doors. The mall remained closed for a long time, but those who had come to watch movies at Cinemax theatre in the mall, were allowed to go in. Later, other outlets started opening up too.    
Kishore Punjabi, VP of City Centre, said that the association with the unnamed financial company would be annulled after the mishap.
shivani_g@dnaindia.net