Iqbal Sharma, the South African national who filed a case of assault against Saif Ali Khan, said the actor had attacked him without any provocation.
“I think he was perturbed that we had the audacity to ask the management to tell them to be quiet,” he told Times Now.
Saif was not present at his residence when the police went there. PTI
The businessman said that he was dining at the Wasabi restaurant in the Taj Hotel in south Mumbai when he requested the management to ask the guests at Saif’s table to lower their voices.
After the meal, Sharma said he left the restaurant where he ran into the actor.
“We crossed near the narrow passage going downstairs and at that point he came up to me, abused me and started calling me names, ” Sharma , who suffered a broken nose and head injuries, said.
Sharma said when the actor pushed him, his father-in-law intervened, the actor and his three friends attacked them as well, Sharma said.
The businessman’s father-in-law, a senior citizen, said that when he attempted to intervene Saif struck him on the jaw.
“I cannot say (if he was under the influence of alcohol) but he was very rowdy,” he told Times Now.
The police have registered an FIR against the 41-year-old actor and his friends under sections 325 (voluntarily causing grievous hurt) and 34 (acts done by several persons in furtherance of common intent) of IPC and are looking for him, but the actor is “unreachable”. The offences are bailable.
The incident, according to the complaint registered by Sharma with the Colaba police station, occurred just past midnight when Saif along with his companion actor Kareena Kapoor and others were having dinner at the restaurant.
Assistant Commisssioner of police Iqbal Shaikh told reporters that the complainant went to the GT Hospital following the incident and then reported the matter to the police around 2.30 this morning.
“His (Saif’s) arrest is inevitable as it is a cognisable offence, but it is a bailable offence,” Shaikh said, adding the actor can be granted bail by the police and will not have to approach the court for it.
He will, however, have to surrender and be arrested before the bail is granted, Shaikh said.
“The section under which he has been booked is bailable. He has to come with a surety and if we find that the surety is a sound surety, we will grant him bail,” the ACP said.
Shaikh said a police team was despatched to the actor’s Bandra residence but he was not present there and his mobile phone was also switched off.
With inputs from PTI