M A I N   N E W S

Saif arrested, bailed out in assault case
Tribune News Service & PTI

Mumbai, February 22
Saif Ali Khan was tonight arrested and released on bail by the police after being charged with assaulting an NRI businessman in a hotel here.

The 41-year-old actor and his two friends were booked under Sections 325 (voluntarily causing grievous hurt) and 34 (acts done by several persons in furtherance of common intention) of the IPC for assaulting a South African businessman of Indian origin Iqbal Sharma at ‘Wasabi’, a Japanese restaurant at the Taj Hotel.

All three were let off on bail on a surety of Rs 15,000 each after completion of formalities that took nearly two hours, according to the police.

Khan claimed innocence, saying the charge against him was “false” and that it was he who was assaulted and the women with him abused. The actor and his two accused friends in their statement recorded by the police blamed Sharma for starting the fracas.

“There was an ugly incident last night where my friend and the women with us were abused and I was assaulted. I was hit and I was only defending myself,” Khan said in a statement, adding “I don’t think any gentleman would have behaved any differently than what I did. I am confident that justice will be done. I think they (the police) have the CCTV footage from the restaurant and that will prove everything. I have seen the interviews given by them (victim) and they look like decent people. I cannot believe that the same people were so aggressive the night before and the lies that they are saying about me with such straight faces,” the actor said.

Sharma rejected the actor’s claim and said the truth will come out during the investigation. He said the fight broke out after he objected to the loud behaviour of the actor and those accompanying him. According to the complainant, who was occupying an adjacent table, Saif was accompanied by his girlfriend Kareena Kapoor.

(With inputs from Shiv Kumar in Mumbai)