JOIN USSaif held for assault, gets bail
Film actor and producer Saif Ali Khan was taken into custody by police on Wednesday, for allegedly getting into a brawl in a five-star hotel with a South African businessman of Indian origin.
The actor was released on bail within an hour of
surrendering to the police.
He will be presenting himself at the Chief Metropolitan Magistrate's Court, near Azad Maidan on Thursday.
The 41-year-old actor was arrested under Indian Penal Code section 325 (causing grievous hurt) and 34 (Acts done by several persons in furtherance of common intention).
At the time of arrest the actor was accompanied by his girlfriend and actress Kareena Kapoor at Colaba police station.
According to reports, Khan, whose ambitious venture “Agent Vinod” is awaiting release next month, along with Kareena Kapoor, Shakeel Ladak, his wife Amrita Arora and Bilal Amrohi was sitting in the Wasabi Restaurant in Taj Hotel, facing Gateway of India, on Tuesday night.
At an adjacent table, Iqbal Nadim Sharma, who is deputy director general, trade and investment South Africa, was having dinner with his wife and father-in-law.
Some time later, Sharma approached the police, claiming that he was attacked by Khan and his friends. Sharma told the police that the actor punched him on the nose.
As per the FIR filed at the Colaba police station, Sharma objected to ‘boisterous’ behaviour by Khan and his friends. The businessman told the police that when his repeated requests to Khan and his friends to lower their voices went unheeded, he decided to shift to the lower floor of the restaurant.
“When I was going down along with my father-in-law, Khan bumped into me in the narrow corridor. He was extremely belligerent and pointedly told me that if want quiet, then I should go to a library and started pushing me. His friends also came rushing and began hammering both me and my father-in-law,” Sharma later told the media.
To a query whether Khan or any of his friends had misbehaved with the women accompanying the complainant, Assistant Commissioner of Police (Colaba region) Iqbal Shaikh said, “There was no such complaint in this regard. The section under which he has been booked was bailable and we had to bring him from his advocate’s office at Nariman Point after he called us and the arrest is just a technicality in this matter."
I was hit first, says actor
Actor Saif Ali Khan claimed on Wednesday that he had been hit and “verbally abused” first during the “ugly incident” at a five-star hotel on Tuesday night, reports PTI from Mumbai. “I was hit first and verbally abused,” Saif said, talking to reporters at his home.
“I was hit first. And as shocking as it may seem, the elderly gentleman hit me. I’m not sure what provoked him. “I am looking forward to CCTV footage (inside the restaurant),” he said, adding that the footage would prove that he was innocent.