Jolie's bodyguards arrested in India

Indian police today 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.

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

MH Belose, additional chief metropolitan magistrate, later 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 (€440) each.

Belose also asked the three to report to local police every day for one week. If convicted, the three can be jailed for up to three years.

Mahesh Jethmalani, lawyer 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 (aged 47), Robert Dunn (aged 35), and Michael Brett (aged 50).

Dallington TV, a British production company that organised 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 murdered 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.

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.