Superstar gets an apology from TV channel Times Now.
By Akanksha Warrier
MUMBAI: Bollywood superstar Salman Khan was on Thursday booked by the police for allegedly hurting the religious sentiments of a community in Yavatmal.
The 48-year-old actor was booked under IPC Section 295A (deliberate and malicious acts, intended to outrage religious feelings of any class by insulting its religion or religious beliefs) on the basis of a complaint lodged by one Mohammad Asim Mohammad Arif, a city resident, police said.
According to the complainant, Khan’s NGO Being Human had recently organized a fashion show in Mumbai where a model walked down the ramp wearing a T-shirt on which a word, inscribed in Arabic, has been deemed offensive to the religious sentiment of Muslim community, Arif claimed.
Investigating Officer Dilip Chavan confirmed receiving the complaint and said a probe was on.
“We are investigating the case. The complainant has provided a video clipping of the fashion show,” he said.
Meanwhile, during the hearing of the 2002 hit-and-run case on Friday, Salman Khan’s lawyer pleaded before a sessions judge that prosecution should not be turned into persecution. He was arguing for maintaining transparency in the prosecution’s schedule for examining the witnesses against him.
“Let us not convert prosecution into persecution. They (the prosecution) cannot play hide and seek with the defence,†advocate Shrikant Shivde, appearing for Salman Khan, told the court.
As the trial moves ahead, the court will now start examining the remaining witnesses in the case – with the prosecution having been directed to share information about the likely witnesses to be examined, reasonably ahead of time. The defence sought that the list be shared by September 20.
Also, in a related development, news channel Times Now on Friday tendered an unconditional apology to the court after Khan’s complaint that the channel was involved in conducting a parallel trial outside the court. Khan had lodged a complaint before the court that the channel had examined a witness of the case during a TV program, thus conducting parallel trail.