 "Who will blink first? 'Cultured' celebrity or 'wronged' NRI")
Two days after actor Saif Ali Khan got into a brawl with South Africa-based businessman, Iqbal Sharma, at the Taj, matters refuse to die down, with news channels still flashing bytes by both sides. Sharma says they have not been approached by the other side for a settlement, and either way, he and his father-in-law are in no mood to settle. “I didn’t even know who he was until the manager told me he was a well-known actor in Bollywood. I know he will easily get a bail and the mater will die down, but I will fight to the end,” Sharma told CNN IBN. Sharma told the Hindustan Times, “What kind of a value system does Saif have to assault a senior citizen.” [caption id=“attachment_222653” align=“alignleft” width=“380” caption=“Both sides stick to their versions. PTI”]
[/caption] While in his defence Saif
told Mumbai Mirror
that he has been brought up in cultured family and any gentleman in his place could have not resisted doing what he had done. Meanwhile,
NDTV today reported
that Saif Ali Khan has filed a counter-complaint with the Mumbai police against Sharma, alleging that Sharma’s father-in-law punched him first and the duo abused the women accompanying him. As proof, as he stated in the complaint, he suffered a swollen eye after being punched and his companions Bilal Amrohi and Shakeel Ladak have bruises on their chest. Mumbai Mirror reported on
how the cops " goofed up"
and why did it take the Mumbai police almost 12 hours to get to Saif:
Although the FIR was registered at 3.30 am and the complainant insisted that the police act quickly as the actor was drunk at the time, Colaba police allegedly made no quick moves. More than 12 hours after the FIR was registered, Colaba police detained Saif Ali Khan when he visited his lawyer at Raheja Chambers in Nariman Point on Wednesday evening… Sources alleged that a senior Crime Branch officer called up Colaba police station allegedly instructing them not to hurry the arrest and instead give the actor some time to surrender.
Saif defended himself against allegations that he went into hiding after the incident. It was reported that on Wednesday morning, Colaba police sent a team to the actor’s Bandra residence and couldn’t find him there. It was only around 4.30 pm that they received official confirmation that he would court arrest at Colaba. The actor told The Times of India he was not drunk at the time of the brawl and that, “no one was hiding, I finished my work and went to the police station. I had not expected them to go to the police station at 2 am.” His companion Amrita Arora told Mumbai Mirror that they are paying the price of being celebs. “Whatever has happened is very unfortunate… they are giving TV interviews. It’s a common case of 15 minutes of fame,” she told the paper. Till the CCTV footage comes in, the police have given a clean chit to Saif and Sharma.