The Bombay high court on April 5 stayed the Andheri (Bombay) metropolitan magistrate’s order which had issued summons against Salman Khan for personal appearance on April 5 on a complaint alleging assault. Following the high court order, the magistrate adjourned the proceedings.
The lower court’s order was on a private complaint filed by a reporter, Ashok Pandey, on June 25, 2019. He alleged assault, abuse and criminal intimidation by the actor and his bodyguard. According to the complaint, Salman “snatched” the cellphone of the reporter after getting into an argument with him as he was video-recording him cycling on April 24, 2019 in Bombay, after allegedly permitting the recording.
The actor challenged the magistrate’s recent order, before the HC. His counsel, Aabad Ponda, submitted that the initial complaint filed immediately by Pandey mentioned no such allegations of assault and abuse. He added that the allegations were added as an afterthought three months later when Pandey filed a private complaint. Ashok Pandey’s lawyer denied that it was an afterthought and said that he had immediately on April 24 texted the police.
The HC said that either the magistrate’s order can be set aside and the matter remanded back or the complainant can file an affidavit in reply.
According to Salman Khan’s counsel, the actor was cycling and simply turned around and asked the bodyguard behind him to tell the reporter to stop recording on his cellphone from inside a vehicle. Salman then walked over to the vehicle and asked for the cellphone to check if it had a recording, and then returned it to Pandey.