A sessions court in Bombay on April 3 dismissed an appeal filed by the state against Shilpa Shetty’s discharge in a 2007 obscenity case. In January 2022, a metropolitan magistrate court discharged Shilpa from a criminal case filed against her in 2007 in Alwar (Rajasthan), for the alleged offence of obscenity following an event where she was hugged and kissed by Hollywood actor Richard Gere in public.
Opposing the state’s appeal, Shilpa Shetty’s lawyer submitted that the only allegation against her was that she did not protest when she was kissed by the co-accused, Gere, and it did not make her a conspirator or perpetrator of any crime. He sought a dismissal of the appeal against her discharge in the case. The case was transferred to Bombay in 2017 on the Supreme Court’s orders. The Rajasthan police filed an appeal against the dismissal.
Shilpa’s reply said, she retained the right to separately file criminal proceedings against the original complainant for malicious proceedings and civil damages.
Shilpa had attended an AIDS awareness event in Rajasthan in 2007. A complaint was filed in the court of judicial magistrate first class, Mundawar, for obscenity and criminal conspiracy. In January 2022, the metropolitan magistrate said, “After giving the prosecution and accused opportunity of being heard, I am satisfied that charge against present accused, that is, Shilpa Shetty, is groundless.”
The accusation against Shetty was that the complainant read an article and saw photographs of their public display of affection. It led to a nationwide protest where Shilpa and Gere’s effigies were burnt on the streets.
