Richard Gere Plea Against Arrest

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Author: teropong | March 9, 2008 - 2:25 am

The Supreme Court Monday issued notices to a woman complainant on whose petition Hollywood star Richard Gere faces an arrest in India for kissing Bollywood actress Shilpa Shetty at a public function here last year.

On Gere’s plea against his possible arrest in India, a bench of Chief Justice K.G. Balakrishnan, Justice R.V. Raveendran and Justice J.M. Panchal issued notice to Poonam Chand Bhandari, who had moved a Jaipur court against the allegedly obscene episode.

Jaipur’s Additional Chief Judicial Magistrate Dinesh Gupta April 27 last year issued the arrest warrant against Gere and Shetty on charges of “indecent representation of sexual activities” in public.

Appearing for Gere, senior counsel Indira Jaisingh told the court that her client “has no qualms in submitting to the authority of the Indian laws”, but seeks protection against his unnecessary arrest.

She said Gere was contemplating visiting India in March but owing to the arrest warrant pending against him, he might not be able to do so.

On Gere’s plea, the bench issued notices to Bhandari, seeking her response as to why the arrest warrant against the Hollywood star not be cancelled.

On a separate plea by Gere, seeking the transfer of the case from Jaipur to Mumbai, the court also issued notices to the Maharashtra government.

For their onstage kissing act, both Gere and Shetty were made accused under Sections 294 (doing obscene act at public place) and 34 (act done in furtherance of common intention) of the Indian Penal Code by the court. The offence is punishable with three months in jail, a fine or both and is bailable.

Jaipur Magistrate Gupta issued the arrest warrant, saying that the demeanour of the two actors was “highly erotic” and “transgressed all limits of decency with the potential to corrupt society.”

source : bollywoodworld

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