Salman Khan has company: Other Bollywood celebs who got on the wrong side of the law

Bollywood is no stranger to run-ins with law. The renewed furore over the 2002 hit and run case involving actor Salman Khan, reminds us that several Bollywood big-wigs have been found on the wrong side of law.

Many actors and actresses have been imprisoned or fined or both in cases that include drunken brawls, arms possession, fake passports, domestic violence and drugs-related legalities, among others.

Here’s a list of Bollywood actors with legal cases:

1. Shiney Ahuja

On March 30, 2011, a sessions judge had sentenced Ahuja to seven years of rigourous imprisonment for raping his domestic help on 14 June, 2009 and imposed a fine of Rs. 3000. Despite the domestic help retracting her statement, the sessions court convicted Ahuja based on circumstantial evidence.

According to a report  the actor sought that his appeal against the judgement be heard expeditiously but the Bombay High Court rejected it.

2. John Abraham

In April 2006, John Abraham rammed his Suzuki Hayabusa motorbike into a bicycle and injured two people. Six years later, a Bandra court had sentenced him to 15 days of rigorous imprisonment for rash driving, after taking him into custody.

However, the Bombay High Court granted him bail in the case, and he escaped a jail term despite the conviction being upheld by a sessions court.

3. Tabu, Neelam and Sonali Bendre

Salman Khan and Saif Ali Khan aren’t the only actors involved in the black buck case. Eyewitnesses have said that while shooting for Hum Saath Saath Hai, Tabu, Neelam and Sonali Bendre had been seen in the vehicle with Salman and Saif while Salman allegedly shot down two black bucks.

Prosecution lawyer on the case, Mahipal Bishnoi said the three actresses were produced in court and identified by Shereram, the eyewitness in the case, reports Rediff . Shereram was allegedly sleeping on the roof of his house and after hearing noises of neighbours scurrying and gun shots, he rushed to the spot.

4. Saif Ali Khan

In 2012, Saif Ali Khan along with Kareena Kapoor, her sister Karishma Kapoor, actress Amrita Arora and her husband Shakeel Ladak, Bilal Amrohi and Malaika Arora Khan were having dinner at Wasabi Restaurant in Taj, Colaba, when he allegedly punched a South-African businessmen who was seated next to him. He was later booked for assault under section 325 of IPC.

While the businessmen, Iqbal Sharma said that Saif threatened not only him but his father in law, Times of India reports Saif saying that Sharma made provocative statements and used abusive language against them. Khan was arrested following the complaint, but was later released on bail.

5. Monica Bedi

Not only was Monica Bedi in the limelight as the lover of gangster Abu Salem, who is in jail for the murder of music baron Gulshan Kumar, she was also arrested in Portugal, for entering the country with fake documents.

After spending two and half years in jail, an SC Bench comprising Justices B Sudershan Reddy and S S Nijjar reduced her sentence to the two-and-a-half years she has already spent in jail for the offence, after her extradition from Portugal along with Salem in November 2006, reported Times of India .

6. Fardeen Khan

In May 2001, actor Fardeen Khan was caught attempting to buy cocaine and was arrested from his Juhu home for possession of narcotics.

He later pleaded that he was buying only for personal consumption. According to the law, first-time offenders can avail of immunity under Section 64A of NDPS Act, provided they undergo de-addiction treatment.

7. Dimple Kapadia, Twinkle Khanna and Akshay Kumar

Rajesh Khanna’s live-in partner Anita Advani had lodged a domestic violence complaint against Dimple Kapadia and her family, claiming that she was evicted from Khanna’s juhu bungalow. She seeked monthly maintenance and a flat in Bandra.

Bombay High Court later quashed the complaint, while Kapadia’s counsel revealed in this Hindu report that Advani’s relationship with Khanna could at most be described as “adulterous” as he was married to Kapadia the entire time and she was not entitled to any relief.

8. Amitabh Bachchan During the time Amitabh Bachchan was a Congress MP from Allahabad for 3 years from 1984-87, his name was also involved in the Bofors scam. Amitabh and his brother were accused of receving kickbacks around the Bofors deal, estimated at a $12 million scandal.

It was later revealed that Bachchan was falsely accused, when the Swedish whistle blower and policeman Sten Lindstrom revealed that Amitabh had no involvement in the case. “From day one we have been saying that we are innocent,” said Bachchan, in this Wall Street Journal blog .

9. Puru Raj Kumar

The eldest son of Bollywood legend Raaj Kumar, and also a failed bollywood actor, Puru Raj Kumar allegedly drunkenly trampled 8 people on street in Bandra, Mumbai. He allegedly lost control of his car and while negotiating a sharp turn, rammed into labourers sleeping on the street. He killed 3 people and seriously injured two, reports Hindu .

This  Hindustan Times report said that he was later convicted but let off on payment of a fine of Rs 30,000 each to the families of the deceased.

10. Shah Rukh Khan

In 2013, post the birth of SRK’s third child AbRam, a sex determination case had been filed against Shah Rukh Khan and his wife Gauri in a Mumbai court, by a social activist Varsha Deshpande who, along with several other female foeticide activists, wanted to know how the couple were aware of the sex of the baby before hand.

Telegraph reported that SRK has since explained that his son had already been born when the reports came out and denied that they had opted for a sex determination test.

 11. Sanjay Dutt

One of the more high-profile arrests following the 1993 serial blasts in Mumbai, Sanjay Dutt was arrested in April under the Terrorist and Disruptive Activities (Prevention Act) TADA, for illegally possessing a 9 mm pistol and an AK 56 assault rifle.

He had been given a five-year sentence by the Supreme Court for illegal weapons possession, NDTV reports . The actor was jailed for 16 month between 1994 and 1995, and for a few weeks again in 2007. He is currently in jail finishing his 5 year term.