The Supreme Court on Monday advised Bollywood actor Govinda to mend ways with a fan who had dragged the cine star to Court for slapping him on the sets of a film shoot seven years ago.
Watching the video of the incident recorded by the complainant Santosh Raj’s lawyer on a mobile phone, the bench of Justices TS Thakur and V Gopala Gowda said, “What you do in reel life you do not have to do in real life. We enjoy your films, but cannot tolerate you slapping someone.”
Not finding the actor’s act in good taste, the bench said, “You are a big hero, show a big heart. You can file a remorse application regretting your action.” The bench made the comment after watching the incident and suggested that the matter should be settled before the next date on February 9.
Rai had on February 2, 2009, filed the complaint under sections 323 (Punishment for voluntarily causing hurt), 504 (Intentional insult with intent to provoke breach of peace) and 506 (1) (Criminal intimidation) of the IPC. Govinda had approached the High Court, which quashed the proceedings initiated against him by the metropolitan magistrate’s court. It was against this order that Raj had approached the apex court.