Mumbai: Actress Amrita Arora Ladakh, deposing as the third witness in the assault case against actor Saif Ali Khan, her husband Shakeel Ladak, and Bilal Amrohi, told a magistrate’s court on Saturday said she saw Saif Ali Khan being punched and hit by the same man who barged into their private enclosure at a Colaba five-star hotel’s restaurant and aggressively reprimanded the group for allegedly being loud. While the public prosecutor moved to declare Amrita a hostile witness, the magistrate noted that she resiled from the statement given to the police earlier. In the earlier hearing, a witness was declared hostile after he did not support the prosecution’s case.
Khan, Shakeel, and Amrohi were present in court during the hearing. Several court staffers, lawyers, and litigants made their way to the courtroom to catch a glimpse of Khan. Some even attempted to click pictures.
The trial that commenced last year will continue next month. Among the other witnesses listed is Amrita’s sister, actor and model Malaika Arora, who was also present with the group that dined at the restaurant on February 21, 2012. On Saturday, taking the stand, Amrita (46) said that a group comprising Khan, Shakeel, Amrohi, Khan’s wife and actor Kareena Kapoor Khan, actor Karisma Kapoor, Malaika, designer Vikram Phadnis, and others decided to dine at the restaurant. “We were all sitting, talking, having a good time. When all of a sudden, after half-an-hour, we saw someone barging into our enclosure and in a very loud aggressive voice told us to shut up and keep quiet. We all got shocked at what was happening. I don’t know why that person suddenly came and said shut up. Saif Ali Khan stood up and said sorry if we are disturbing you in an apologetic manner…We went back to have our dinner. We did not realise he was outside the enclosure still,” she said. Amrita described the enclosure as one having a curtain-like partition.
She further said that at some point, Saif Ali Khan stood up, excused himself to go to the washroom. “After about a couple of minutes, we heard a lot of screaming and shouting. We were all wondering what was happening. One of us recognised the voice of Saif coming and we got off our table and rushed there. We saw that person who barged into our enclosure hitting Saif, punching him. There was a scuffle between Saif and that person, so we all rushed there. We tried to pull them apart and separated them,” Amrita submitted.
She further said that the other person started abusing all of them at the top of his voice. “He started saying aggressively, ‘You don’t know who I am and what I am capable of doing to you all.’ We were all very shaken. We also saw Saif’s shirt torn. Due to this incident, we paid the bill and left the restaurant,” Amrita concluded.
The case is registered at Colaba police station. Explaining the alleged trigger for the spat at a five-star hotel in Colaba, police said a man from South Africa, Iqbal Sharma, protested against the raucous chatter of the actor’s group when Saif Ali Khan allegedly threatened him and his father-in-law Ramanbhai Patel and went on to punch Sharma on the nose, fracturing it.
In 2014, a magistrate’s court framed charges of assault against Saif Ali Khan, Shakeel, and Amrohi. The trio was charged under sections 325 (voluntarily causing grievous hurt) and 34 (common intention) of the Indian Penal Code. Subsequently, a plea was moved by the prosecution, submitting that the police report and the statement of the witnesses, Patel and his daughter Tarina Sharma, showed that the former was also assaulted by Khan and his two friends but unfortunately the actor’s name was not mentioned as one of the persons who assaulted him.
On March 4, 2017, the magistrate’s court added the charge, saying, “…that you accused on the abovementioned date, time and place, in furtherance of your common intention, voluntarily caused hurt to the witness, Ramanbhai Patel, by slapping on his cheek and as well as beating him, and thereby committed an offence punishable under section 323.”
Khan then moved the sessions court against the order. In his plea, he said when the evidence of the complainant (Sharma) was recorded in 2017, the prosecution moved a plea to modify the charge against him and the two others on the grounds that his name was inadvertently left out when charges were framed with respect to Patel’s assault.
The actor claimed that the prosecution moved the plea as Sharma, a non-resident Indian, was not attending the matter and they wanted Patel to be the main witness. In 2019, the sessions court rejected his plea.
In 2023, a magistrate’s court framed an additional charge of voluntarily causing hurt to a witness against the actor, paving the way for it to begin the trial. The accused pleaded not guilty to the charges.
Mumbai: Actress Amrita Arora Ladakh, deposing as the third witness in the assault case against actor Saif Ali Khan, her husband Shakeel Ladak, and Bilal Amrohi, told a magistrate’s court on Saturday said she saw Saif Ali Khan being punched and hit by the same man who barged into their private enclosure at a Colaba five-star hotel’s restaurant and aggressively reprimanded the group for allegedly being loud. While the public prosecutor moved to declare Amrita a hostile witness, the magistrate noted that she resiled from the statement given to the police earlier. In the earlier hearing, a witness was declared hostile after he did not support the prosecution’s case.
Khan, Shakeel, and Amrohi were present in court during the hearing. Several court staffers, lawyers, and litigants made their way to the courtroom to catch a glimpse of Khan. Some even attempted to click pictures.
The trial that commenced last year will continue next month. Among the other witnesses listed is Amrita’s sister, actor and model Malaika Arora, who was also present with the group that dined at the restaurant on February 21, 2012. On Saturday, taking the stand, Amrita (46) said that a group comprising Khan, Shakeel, Amrohi, Khan’s wife and actor Kareena Kapoor Khan, actor Karisma Kapoor, Malaika, designer Vikram Phadnis, and others decided to dine at the restaurant. “We were all sitting, talking, having a good time. When all of a sudden, after half-an-hour, we saw someone barging into our enclosure and in a very loud aggressive voice told us to shut up and keep quiet. We all got shocked at what was happening. I don’t know why that person suddenly came and said shut up. Saif Ali Khan stood up and said sorry if we are disturbing you in an apologetic manner…We went back to have our dinner. We did not realise he was outside the enclosure still,” she said. Amrita described the enclosure as one having a curtain-like partition.
She further said that at some point, Saif Ali Khan stood up, excused himself to go to the washroom. “After about a couple of minutes, we heard a lot of screaming and shouting. We were all wondering what was happening. One of us recognised the voice of Saif coming and we got off our table and rushed there. We saw that person who barged into our enclosure hitting Saif, punching him. There was a scuffle between Saif and that person, so we all rushed there. We tried to pull them apart and separated them,” Amrita submitted.
She further said that the other person started abusing all of them at the top of his voice. “He started saying aggressively, ‘You don’t know who I am and what I am capable of doing to you all.’ We were all very shaken. We also saw Saif’s shirt torn. Due to this incident, we paid the bill and left the restaurant,” Amrita concluded.
The case is registered at Colaba police station. Explaining the alleged trigger for the spat at a five-star hotel in Colaba, police said a man from South Africa, Iqbal Sharma, protested against the raucous chatter of the actor’s group when Saif Ali Khan allegedly threatened him and his father-in-law Ramanbhai Patel and went on to punch Sharma on the nose, fracturing it.
In 2014, a magistrate’s court framed charges of assault against Saif Ali Khan, Shakeel, and Amrohi. The trio was charged under sections 325 (voluntarily causing grievous hurt) and 34 (common intention) of the Indian Penal Code. Subsequently, a plea was moved by the prosecution, submitting that the police report and the statement of the witnesses, Patel and his daughter Tarina Sharma, showed that the former was also assaulted by Khan and his two friends but unfortunately the actor’s name was not mentioned as one of the persons who assaulted him.
On March 4, 2017, the magistrate’s court added the charge, saying, “…that you accused on the abovementioned date, time and place, in furtherance of your common intention, voluntarily caused hurt to the witness, Ramanbhai Patel, by slapping on his cheek and as well as beating him, and thereby committed an offence punishable under section 323.”
Khan then moved the sessions court against the order. In his plea, he said when the evidence of the complainant (Sharma) was recorded in 2017, the prosecution moved a plea to modify the charge against him and the two others on the grounds that his name was inadvertently left out when charges were framed with respect to Patel’s assault.
The actor claimed that the prosecution moved the plea as Sharma, a non-resident Indian, was not attending the matter and they wanted Patel to be the main witness. In 2019, the sessions court rejected his plea.
In 2023, a magistrate’s court framed an additional charge of voluntarily causing hurt to a witness against the actor, paving the way for it to begin the trial. The accused pleaded not guilty to the charges.