Mumbai court discharges Shilpa Shetty in 2007 Richard Gere kissing case
A metropolitan magistrate court at Ballard Pier has discharged actress Shilpa Shetty from a criminal case originally filed against her in 2007 in Alwar, Rajasthan.
The actress was accused of obscenity and indecency after co-accused, Hollywood star Richard Gere publicly kissed her. The incident had taken place in Rajasthan during an event to promote AIDS awareness.
Metropolitan magistrate Ketaki M Chavan while discharging the actress observed that she was the victim of the alleged act of accused number 1. “Not a single element of any of the alleged offences is being satisfied in the complaint.
Moreover, none of the papers annexed with the final report discloses the act of the present accused (Shilpa Shetty) so as to bring her with the purview of section 34 of IPC (common intention),” said the magistrate.
“Thus, after considering police report and documents sent with it under section 173 of CrPC, after giving the prosecution and accused an opportunity of being heard, I am satisfied that charge against present accused i.e. Shilpa Shetty is groundless,” the magistrate added.
After the incident there was protest in several parts of the country burning the effigies of both the actors.
A complaint was filed before the judicial magistrate in Mundawar in Rajasthan seeking registration of offence against both the actors. Later a case was registered under sections 292, 293, 294 of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) for doing obscene acts in public and under the Information Technology act and Indecent Representation of Women (Prohibition) Act, 1986.
The actress moved a petition to transfer all the cases registered against her to Mumbai which was allowed by the Supreme Court and all the complaints were transferred to Mumbai.
Shetty filed discharge plea through her counsel, advocate Madhukar Dalvi.
In her plea, the actress said that she did not protest when she was kissed by Richard Gere and this by no stretch of imagination made her a conspirator or perpetrator of any crime and therefore the complaint filed against her was baseless and frivolous.
The judge accepted the actress’s contention and discharged her.