The Rajasthan police has quietly transferred the Shilpa Shetty-Richard Gere kissing-in-public case to its Delhi counterparts.
The Indian Express has all the details of the case on which there is a Supreme Court stay order: [Link]
The Delhi Police had not registered any FIR after examining the complaints against Gere’s action — he planted kisses on Shetty’s cheek during an AIDS awareness programme at Samaipur Badli on April 15, 2007. On a lawyer’s complaint, the Rajasthan Police had registered a case, but according to them since the incident took place in Delhi it should be investigated here.
The Senior Superintendent Police, Alwar, sent the case file to Delhi last week. “They have sent the files following a local court order, but the case has already been stayed by the Supreme Court. There is nothing that we can do,” said an officer.
“We are taking a legal opinion in the matter,” said DCP (Outer), Dr Sagar Preet Hooda. Narela ACP Dinesh Kumar Gupta is looking into the matter and the case files are being examined by Samaipur Badli officials.
The Bollywood actor and the Hollywood star were at an AIDS awareness event at the Sanjay Gandhi Transport Nagar in Outer Delhi on April 15 last year where Gere hugged Shetty, bent over her and kissed on her cheeks. The episode raised the hackles of several conservative groups, with protesters coming out on the streets and burning effigies of the duo. Several protests were held in Kanpur, Varanasi, Indore, Jaipur, Ghaziabad, Mumbai and Delhi demanding legal action against the actors for indulging in this “obscene act”.
The Delhi Police conducted an inquiry but did not register any case saying kissing is not a banned act.
A lawyer from Alwar, Bhoop Singh, however, filed a complaint in a Mundawar (Rajasthan) court after which an FIR was registered against Shetty, Gere and a TV channel under Sections 292, 293, 294 (related to obscene act), 120B (criminal conspiracy), 67 IT Act, and Sections 4 and 6 of the Indecent Representation of Women Act, 1986. Later, two more FIRs were lodged in Jaipur and Ghaziabad.
On May 15, 2007, the Supreme Court suspended criminal proceedings against the actors.
In a petition, Shilpa Shetty had urged that all three cases be transferred to the Bombay High Court. The petition said the Gere Foundation was working on a programme to create awareness about HIV/AIDS in Asia and had started the Heroes Project in India to mobilise various celebrities to fight the scourge. Shilpa had been invited by the Heroes Project to address the April 15 meeting in Delhi, to create awareness among truck drivers about HIV/AIDS. At the function, Gere, reliving a moment from his movie, Shall We Dance, hugged and kissed Shilpa on the cheek, she had said, adding that it was meant to be a spoof from the said movie.
