HC quashes Salman's case: 'Judicial process should not be means for harassment'

Judicial process need not be a means of needless harassment merely because an accused is a celebrity the Bombay High Court has said in its order quashing criminal proceedings against Bollywood actor Salman Khan in a complaint of intimidation filed by a journalist in 2019Justice Bharati Dangre on March 30 allowed applications filed by Salman Khan and his bodyguard Nawaz Shaikh and quashed the proceedings and process summons issued to them by a lower courtIn the detailed order that became available on Tuesday the HC noted that the magistrates court had failed to follow the procedural mandate before issuing summonsThe judicial process need not be a means for needless harassment merely because the accused is a wellknown celebrity and without adhering to the procedure of law he shall not be subjected to unnecessary oppression at the hands of a complainant who set in the machinery into motion to satisfy his vendetta and assumed that he was insulted by the cine star the order saidThis was a fit case where the issuance of process against the applicants Salman Khan and Shaikh and continuation of the proceedings is nothing short of abuse of the process the judge addedand for doing substantial justice I deem it appropriate to quash the impugned order the court saidAlso readMaharashtra govt ignoring rainhit farmers undertaking yatra Shiv Sena UBT MP Arvind SawantJustice Dangre also stated in the judgement that continuation of any action against the applicants would result in grave injusticeThe magistrate should have first recorded the statement of the complainant to verify his allegations said the high courtThe lower court surpassed the procedure laid down under the Code of Criminal Procedure CrPC while issuing the summons and it suffers from serious infraction of procedure to be adopted when a private complaint is filed the HC addedA magistrates court had in March 2022 issued summons to Salman and his bodyguard Nawaz Shaikh directing them to appear before it on April 5 2022The order was passed on a complaint by a journalist Ashok Pandey alleging that he was threatened and assaulted by the actor and his bodyguardKhan moved the HC challenging the summons On April 5 2022 the HC stayed the summonsPandey had alleged that in April 2019 Salman Khan and Shaikh abused and assaulted him for filming the actor while Khan was riding bicycle on a Mumbai streetKhan in his petition claimed that he had not said anything to Pandey during the incidentBut Metropolitan Magistrate R R Khan issued summons noting that a police report submitted in the matter stated that offences under Indian Penal Code sections 504 intentional insult with intent to provoke breach of peace and 506 criminal intimidation were made out against the accusedA magistrates court issues summons if it finds prima facie substance in the allegations made in a complaintThis story has been sourced from a third party syndicated feed agencies Midday accepts no responsibility or liability for its dependability trustworthiness reliability and data of the text Midday managementmiddaycom reserves the sole right to alter delete or remove without notice the content in its absolute discretion for any reason whatsoever