HC stays proceedings against Aamir Khan

Sat, Apr 12 03:16 AM

The Gujarat High Court on Friday stayed the execution of bailable arrest warrants issued against actor Aamir Khan and four others associated with his film Lagaan, for the alleged unauthorised filming of Chinkara, a protected animal, in the Oscar-nominated movie. The warrants were issued by a court in Bhuj in a case filed by the state Forest Department.

The High Court also stayed further proceedings of the lower court in the matter and issued notice to the Forest Department. The next hearing of the case is on April 25. The Chief Judicial Magistrate Bhuj had, on March 27, issued the warrants against Khan, his former wife and executive producer Reena Dutta, director Ashutosh Gowarikar, chief executive production Srinivas Rao and cinematographer Anil Mehta on a plea made by the Forest Department. The department's petition said all four had repeatedly failed to turn up before the inquiry committee looking into the Chinkara case in spite of the number of notices sent to them. The order by Justice Harsha N Devani comes three days before the actor and his associates would have had to appear before the Sessions Court, Bhuj as specified in the warrant.

Khan had then approached the High Court seeking to get the proceedings against them quashed on the grounds that there was no actual filming and the animal shown in the film was created using computer graphics. They have also said that the lower court had issued warrants without hearing their version.

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