Plaint against Abhijeet Bhattacharya and Farah Khan Ali over Salman Khan tweets
Muzaffarpur, Bihar: A district court today ordered that an FIR be registered against Bollywood singer Abhijeet Bhattacharya and jewellery designer Farah Khan Ali for their remarks against people sleeping on roads following conviction of actor Salman Khan in a 2002 hit-and-run case.
Hearing a complaint case filed by advocate Sudhir Kumar Ojha, Additional Chief Judicial Magistrate (ACJM) Ram Chandra Prasad directed that an FIR be lodged against the two with Kazi Mohammadpur police station here under various offences including provocation with intent to cause riot and promoting enmity between different groups.
The police station was chosen as the complainant had given the place of occurrence as Chhattapur where he said he purchased newspapers and read about the disparaging remarks made by the two which prompted him to approach the court.
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The court instructed that an FIR be filed under IPC sections 153 (wantonly giving provocation with intent to cause riot), 153-A (promoting enmity between different groups and doing acts prejudicial to maintenance of harmony), 504 (intentional insult with intent to provoke breach of the peace) and 506 (punishment for criminal intimidation).
The complainant had claimed that he had been hurt by the "derogatory" remarks of the singer which he saw on TV channels and read in newspapers.
In a series of tweets, Abhijeet had on May 6 said "Come out fraternity, support @BeingSalmanKhan boldly not hypocritically Roads footpath r not meant 4 sleeping, not driver's or alcohol's fault (sic)." "Roads are meant for cars and dogs not for people sleeping on them."
Jewellery designer and Salman's friend Farah Ali Khan had also sought to blame the homeless for the star's plight with comments like footpaths are not for sleeping.
However Farah apologised in a series of tweets. She posted-
Gm.Since 140 characters arent enuf 2say what I want 2 say,I would like u all to read the next 9 to10 tweets of mine together be4 u comment.
— Farah Khan (@FarahKhanAli) May 8, 2015I realise the homeless have no place to go and so we need to be more sympathetic to them.
— Farah Khan (@FarahKhanAli) May 8, 2015My concern is genuine one bec there will be many innocent ppl in future who will lose their lives 2drunk drivers for sleeping on d footpath
— Farah Khan (@FarahKhanAli) May 8, 2015And while drivers will serve time & be free men eventually, the victim would have lost his life nevr coming back bec d system is apathetic
— Farah Khan (@FarahKhanAli) May 8, 2015And maybe we need to earmark roads where the homeless can sleep peacefully without the fear of being run over, roads that are bylanes
— Farah Khan (@FarahKhanAli) May 8, 2015Bec just by turning a blind eye to their plight we are allowing more innocent lives to be lost .
— Farah Khan (@FarahKhanAli) May 8, 2015Change doesn't happen overnight but maybe we can collectively come up with solutions to make sure that people don't die senselessly
— Farah Khan (@FarahKhanAli) May 8, 2015For each life is precious, be it anyone. Lives are lives and it is our duty as citizens to protect another life collectively as a society.
— Farah Khan (@FarahKhanAli) May 8, 2015And so, I would like to offer an UNCONDITIONAL apology for my tweets ref the homeless sleeping on the streets.
— Farah Khan (@FarahKhanAli) May 8, 2015