Being Salman Khan has shieled the actor, often dubbed Hindi film industry's enfant terrible, from police action many times and the same happened when he allegedly assaulted a scribe who clicked his pictures and shot his video, after seeking express permission from his bodyguards. If the court hadn't directed the cops to investigate the matter, they wouldn't have moved, rues the journalist, Ashok Pandey.
"I was confident the court would not turn me down the way the local Mumbai police had. DN Nagar police station had ignored me only because my aggressor was film star Salman Khan. I had asked for a case of robbery and criminal intimidation to be filed but they wouldn't do it," Pandey told DNA on Thursday, a day after a metropolitan court instructed the cops to probe the matter and submit a report.
On the morning of April 24 this year, Pandey was driving in Andheri West when he spotted Salman Khan riding a bicycle, his bodyguards in tow. He asked them if he could film and snapshot the actor and one of the guards in the convoy said yes, Pandey claims. But when he did, Khan lost his cool and asked his guards to stop him. At Khan's behest, his bodyguards banged Pandey's car and "abused, humiliated and manhandled" Pandey, he claims. Khan also got off his bike, approached Pandey and after cursing him, snatched his phone away, Pandey alleges. The actor returned the phone to Pandey after allegedly deleting two videos.
DNA reached out to Khan's PR team for comment but received none till late last night.
When Pandey approached the DN Nagar police seeking redress, he was met at first with resistance and then point-bank refusal. "Senior inspector Parmeshwar Ganame and assistant police commissioner Vinay Kulkarni said it to my face that the case didn't have any merit, without even a preliminary probe. The cops told me to go get a court order for investigation. And you can see that the court has found merit in my case," Pandey said.
Why is it that Salman Khan is treated with kids' gloves, activists as well as scribes ask. A senior city-based journalist who extensively covered the 2002- hit-and-run-case told DNA on the condition of anonymity that "special treatment" is reserved for Salman Khan for every run-in with the law.
"Even in the hit-and-run case, the cops initially only lodged a case of rash driving and let Khan go. The case was not investigated seriously because the accused was Khan. Only after a PIL was filed and evidence submitted in court did the police frame appropriate charges under the law against him," said the scribe.
Pandey said, "It is unfortunate that Khan's celebrity profile has obstructed the process of investigation, which was deliberately stalled... I visited the police station several times, my statement was also recorded and then one fine day, the police told me my case had been discarded due to lack of evidence."
When contacted, senior inspector Parmeshwar Ganame said, "The court has ordered us to conduct an investigation and submit a report by next month. Accordingly, we shall look into the matter and investigate it properly."
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