Lawyers say the rationale the actor got bailed out after his arrest in an assault case in less time than it takes to observe one in every of his movies is his superstar status.
Around 8 pm yesterday, making his way through a legion of cameras, actor Saif Ali Khan arrived on the Colaba police station. He was gone 90 minutes later, having paid Rs 15,000 for bail. Experts say Saif was given special treatment, albeit throughout the ambit of the law.
"The only cases during which the law have been followed and bail promptly granted is when celebrities are involved, even supposing police are required to grant bail forthwith in comparable cases," said advocate Srikant Bhat, author of Principles and Practice of Criminal Law.
Special case? Advocate Jabbar Shaikh said, "Normally there are lots of Section 325 (voluntarily causing grievous hurt) cases, which occur in slums. Though the police can decide to give such persons bail, they do not. The cops usually wait till the following morning to provide the accused before the magistrate."
"The normal practice is to attend till day after today and convey the individual before the magistrate, in case the accused is a typical citizen. If the individual is influential, he's granted bail prompt. For the typical man, unfortunately, there is not any such relief," said advocate Wahab Khan.
When contacted, Senior Inspector Vinod Sawant of Colaba Police station said, "WE'VE complied with the law in granting Khan bail, upon surety of Rs 15,000." Lawyers say they're all too accustomed to situations where police drag their feet with investigations, taking their time to supply accused persons before magistrates, and sometimes, deliberately arrest suspects right before the weekend, making it harder to prepare for bail. Remarkably, in Khan's case, it took all of 16 hours between the time of registering the FIR, and the granting of bail.
Out and about
Saif was arrested on Wednesday after he surrendered to Colaba police and later granted bail by an evening court. The actor was focused on a brawl with an NRI businessman on the Taj Hotel on Tuesday night. Sources say, the actor had left his lawyer's office at Gamdevi in his own car but boarded the police vehicle near Nariman Point where he and others were arrested before being dropped at the police station.
According to the complainant Iqbal Meer Sharma, deputy director general and CEO of South African Trade Industry and Investments, he together with his wife and father-in-law Dr Raman Bhai Patel had gone to the Wasabi restaurant on the Taj Mahal Hotel when the scuffle happened between him and Saif.
Star party Saif was accompanied by Kareena and Karishma Kapoor, Malaika Arora Khan, Amrita Arora Ladak, Shakeel Ladak and some other friends. "We were having our dinner quietly around 12.30 am, when Saif and the others who were sitting on a close-by table started making loud noises. We complained to the hotel management about this. But still the commotion continued. After this we asked the hotel management to shift us to a table on another floor," said Sharma.
Packing a punch "But once I was going downstairs together with my family, Saif who was coming back from the washroom blocked my path and asked me to search out a library and go there to search out some peace of mind. He went directly to push me and punched me at the nose and his friend Shakeel punched my father-in-law who fell. They were using the 'F' word constantly," Sharma claimed.
After this, Sharma, a brief resident of Juhu, approached a chum and lodged a complaint with Colaba police around 2.30 am against Saif and two of his friends, whom he didn't know, under sections 325 (Punishment for voluntarily causing grievous hurt) and 34 (Acts done by several persons in furtherance of common intent) of IPC. The 2 others who were arrested has been identified as Bilal Amrohi and Shakeel Ladak, husband of Amrita Arora. Both men were released on bails of Rs 15,000.
Official statement of Saif Ali Khan
"There was an unpleasant incident last night where my friends and the women with us were abused and that i was assaulted. I USED TO BE hit and that i defended myself. I'VE BEEN to the police station to reply to the necessities of the law, as I'M a law-abiding citizen. I'VE also filed a complaint about what happened last night and i'm confident justice may be done. I'VE seen the interviews given on TV and so they appear to be decent people and that i cannot believe that the similar people were so aggressive the night before and the lies that they're saying about me with such straight faces. I FEEL they've the CCTV footage within the restaurant in order to prove everything. I'M HOPING the media is in a position to remain impartial while the problem is being decided. I DO NOT BELIEVE any gentleman would have behaved differently."
IPC section A complaint against Saif Ali Khan and two others identified as Bilal Amrohi and Shakeel Ladak under sections 325 (Punishment for voluntarily causing grievous hurt) and 34 (Acts done by several persons in furtherance of common intent) of IPC was lodged at Colaba police station.
Courtesy: Mid-Day.com
