Saif arrested, bailed out for assaulting NRI businessman

Mumbai, February 22, 2012
Saif Ali Khan was on Wednesday night arrested for allegedly punching an NRI businessman and his relative at a restaurant in a luxury hotel here. He was immediately bailed out. The actor and two friends were booked for allegedly assaulting Iqbal Sharma, a South African national of Indian origin, at Wasabi.
— a Japanese restaurant in the Taj Mahal hotel — on Tuesday night after the latter told the actor’s gang to keep the noise level down. Khan was dining with 10 friends, including girlfriend Kareena Kapoor and actor Amrita Arora.

Sharma — a trade official with the South African government — told the police Khan’s table was very noisy and when he objected, the actor suggested he go to a library if he wanted silence. Sharma finally decided to change tables himself but when he was moving, Khan threatened him. “He said, ‘you don’t know who I am’. He used abusive language and when the argument furthered, he punched me on my nose,” Sharma said.

“When my father-in-law tried to intervene, he punched him twice on his face and stomach,” he said. Sharma said his 68-year-old father-in-law, Raman Patel, fell to the floor. "I lifted him up but… a man accompanying Khan came running down, punched my father-in-law in the face and ran back."

"On Sharma's complaint, we have booked Saif and two friends under section 325 (voluntarily causing grievous hurt) of the IPC," said Vinod Sawant, senior police inspector at Colaba police station.

The 41-year-old actor and his friends surrendered at the police station around 8pm. They were bailed out an hour later.

Khan said in a statement: "I was hit and I defended myself… I think the restaurant has CCTV footage, which will prove everything."

Saif assault case: Victim's version

Iqbal Meer Sharma, an NRI residing in Juhu, who was allegedly assaulted by actor Saif Ali Khan at a restaurant in South Mumbai on Tuesday, said that he had requested the restaurant's management thrice to ask Khan's group of six people to lower the noise before Khan attacked him and his 68-year-old father-in-law.

"The hotel's management asked Khan to make less noise on three occasions after I repeatedly requested them, but the group did not relent. Eventually, my father-in-law and I decided to move to a table downstairs. While we were descending the staircase, Khan who was walking up the staircase then asked me to go sit in a library if i wanted a peaceful place," said Sharma, who is the chairman of a private firm in Johannesburg, South Africa.

Sharma said that he tried to speak politely to Khan when he started using abusive language. "Khan threatened me saying 'you do not know who I am.' He used unspeakable abusive language and after the argument furthered, he punched me on my nose. When my father-in-law tried to intervene, he punched him twice- on his face and stomach," alleged Sharma.

Sharma said that due to the force of the punches, his father-in-law, Raman Patel fell on the floor. "I lifted him up from the floor and just when we reached the bottom of the staircase, another man accompanying Khan came running down the staircase, punched my father-in-law in the face and ran back to his table," said Sharma.

Sharma said that the hotel authorities then gave him some tissue paper for his bleeding nose, following which he left the hotel with Patel. "We went to a local clinic in the area and after we received first aid and had my nose xray done, we went to Colaba police station to file a complaint."

Sharma said that even if Khan were to apologise for his act, he would not accept the apology. "If he had to apologise, he should have done it at the time of the incident. And more than me, he should apologise to my father-in-law for assaulting a senior citizen. We are not going to accept any apologies, the law will take its course now," he said.

Patel, who has recently had a bypass surgery and has been suffering from a lung disorder, said that he did not expect such behavior from a person who is held in high esteem by innumerable people in the country.

"Celebrities are people who are looked up at by several people. You do not expect such rowdy behavior from them. Besides, we were in a five star hotel. They should have at least abided by the decorum that is to be maintained in such a place," said Patel, a doctor by profession.

Sharma was unaware that Khan was a celebrity at the time of the incident: "I did not that he is a Bollywood actor when the incident occurred. And I do not know if he was intoxicated then, but I can say that had he been sober, he would not have assaulted a senior citizen."