The Gujarat High Court dropped a criminal charge against superstar Shah Rukh Khan on Wednesday, stating that waving, tossing T-shirts, and smiley balls at the Vadodara train station while promoting a film cannot be considered actions of ‘high degree of negligence’ and ‘recklessness’.
According to a complaint filed in February 2017 in the magisterial court by Vadodara resident Jitendra Solanki, Khan threw freebies, such as smiley soft balls, T-shirts, and goggles, at the crowd gathered at the railway station from his train coach, resulting in a stampede and one person’s death.
Khan had paused at Vadodara railway station while travelling by August Kranti Express from Mumbai to Delhi to promote his film Raees.
According to Justice Nikhil Kariel, Khan’s actions cannot ‘be stated to be acts of a very high degree of negligence or recklessness’. In his verdict, Justice Kariel observed, ‘The act on part of (Khan)… may have led to some of the members of the crowd getting excited but… such acts could not be stated to be consisting of a very high degree of negligence or recklessness… Furthermore the petitioner (Khan)… being an actor was promoting his upcoming movie… none of the said act could be termed as having any element of mens rea, which is an essential element to hold negligence as being an offence’.
Justice Kariel remarked that, based on the inquiry report that was presented to a Vadodara magisterial court, ‘there may be other intervening circumstances which had led to some unruly incident at the railway station’.
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According to the court, the train came to a halt in a way that Khan’s cabin was close to the station stairs, where space was limited. The court also noted that police had to use force to manage the disorderly areas. Two foreign cricketers had also arrived at the railway station to greet Khan, causing the gathering to go out of hand.
‘It also appears that the train, after its scheduled stop, had started moving when some persons in the crowd started to move out of the platform… the train stopped all of a sudden, which led to some sections of the crowd pushing to go back towards the train, which also appears to have led to some unruly scenes’, the judgement noted.
Khan, who was defended by senior attorney Mihir Thakore and lawyer Salil Thakore, contended that the charges against him were unfounded and ‘by no stretch of imagination it could be considered that as rash or negligent either to endanger human life or personal safety’.
Khan’s supporters also claimed that an investigation report found that the turmoil was caused by ‘many reasons’. The public prosecutor also said that there was no evidence in the report that Khan’s actions posed a threat to human life or public safety.
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