Priti Pathak
A Mumbai Metropolitan Magistrate M S Bhodankar on Friday issued summons to the South African businessmen who were allegedly assaulted by Bollywood actor Saif Ali Khan in Taj Hotel in 2012. The court also directed their advocates to keep the accused present before the court on the next date of hearing.
Saif Ali Khan and two others were arrested after a Mumbai based businessman Iqbal Mir Sharma filed a complaint against Saif Ali Khan and his friends. On March 2014 court had framed the charges against Khan and his two friends under sections 325 (assault) and 34 (common intention) of the Indian Penal Code. The police had filed the charge-sheet on December 21, 2013.
The incident
On February 2012 Saif Ali Khan his wife Kareena
Kapoor, her sister Karishma Kapoor, Malaika Arora Khan, Amrita Arora and some male friends had gone to Wasabi restaurant inside Taj Hotel on February 22, 2012.
According to Sharma he protested the raucous chatter of Saif Ali Khan and his friends. Saif allegedly threatened them and subsequently punched Sharma in the nose, fracturing it. The NRI businessman also accused Saif and his friends of hitting his father-in-law Raman Patel. Justifying their side Saif Ali Khan on the other hand said that Sharma made provocative statements and used abusive language against the women accompanying him, which led to the ruckus.