A day ahead of Salman Khan’s scheduled appearance before it in connection with his “felt like a raped woman” remark, the Maharashtra State Commission for Women (MSCW) on Wednesday made it clear that there was question of him being given a fresh date of hearing as it had done earlier.
Salman, who was to have appeared before the MSCW at 2 pm on June 29 to offer his personal explanation over his controversial remark, had failed to turn up before the Commission. Not satisfied with the explanation given by him for not responding physically to its summons, the MSCW had issued fresh summons to the actor and directed him to appear before it on July 7.
Responding to speculation in certain sections of the media that Salman might not appear before the MSCW on Thursday which happens to be Eid, MSCW chairperson Vijaya Rahatkar told The Pioneer on Wednesday evening, “We have not so far received any communication from the actor. As far as we are concerned, we are expecting him to appear before the Commission along with his lawyer tomorrow. As of now, there is absolutely no question of our postponing the hearing scheduled for tomorrow”.
“For us members at the Commission, tomorrow is a normal working day. We will be waiting for the actor to appear before us at 4.30 pm tomorrow,” Rahatkar said.
It may be recalled that while choosing not appearing before the commission on June 29, Salman had sent a legal response to the MSCW, citing double jeopardy, a procedural defence that forbids a defendant from being tried again on the same (or similar) charges in the same case and saying that the matter relating to his controversial comment was before the National Commission for Women (NCW) that the matter cannot be taken up by the State Commission.
However, the MSCW had rejected the actor’s stand, saying that it had “concurrent powers” to invoke section 10 (2) of Maharashtra State Commission for Women Act, 1993 under which it has powers to summon a person from any part of the state and examine him on oath or take recourse to any other sections to initiate proceedings against the person who has violated the provisions of this Act. The MSCW had gone to issue fresh summons to Salman to appear before on July 7.
The MSCW’s summons to 50-year-old actor had followed public uproar over the “insensitive” remark that he had made during the course of an interview that he gave to a Bollywood website as part of the promotion of his film “Sultan” slated for release on July 6. Salman had said that the shooting of wrestling bouts was so gruelling that he felt like a “raped woman” while he would walk out of the ring after the shoot.
"While shooting, during those six hours, there'd be so much of lifting and thrusting on the ground involved. That was tough for me because if I was lifting, I'd have to lift the same 120-kilo guy 10 times for 10 different angles. And likewise, get thrown that many times on the ground. This act is not repeated that many times in the real fights in the ring... "When I used to walk out of the ring, after the shoot, I used to feel like a raped woman. I couldn't walk straight," the actor had said in the interview.
SUlTAN TO FETCH Rs15O CR BY WEEKEND
Notwithstanding the controversy over his “felt like a raped woman” remark, actor Salman Khan’s Sultan opened to an overwhelming response on Wednesday. So much so that the film distributors and analysts expected the film to do a Rs150 crore business by the end of the week.