The Bombay high court on June 10 directed that Salman Khan’s name be deleted as respondent in a petition filed by the mother of late Anuj Thapan, an accused in the April 14 firing incident outside the actor’s residence at Bandra in Bombay. “Delete his name…,” a bench of Justices Revati Mohite-Dere and Shyam Chandak said, adding, “What is the point of making a person who is supposed to be the victim, a party respondent? We see no reason why respondent 4 (Khan) should continue to be in this plea. He is not a necessary party.”
Anuj’s mother, Rita Devi, has sought a CBI probe into the “custodial death” of her son, Anuj, who was found hanging inside the toilet of the crime branch lock-up at Crawford Market in Bombay on May 1. Her petition claimed that Anuj was tortured by police and later on, the entire incident was given the shape of suicidal death.
The judges took note that Salman was impleaded in the petition but no averment or relief was sought against him. They added that the petitioner was concerned with her son’s death, and that the HC would look into it. The judges also said that by adding Khan as a respondent, the petitioner was “digressing from the core issue”.
Rita Devi’s advocate told the court that while no relief was sought against Khan, he should be part of the state CID’s probe into Anuj’s death. In their order, the judges recorded that Rita “seeks leave to amend the petition” to delete Khan’s name “as there is no pleading against him and no relief sought against him”.