Shilpa Shetty gets relief in the 2007 kissing case involving Richard Gere

Shilpa Shetty was granted relief by a court in a case of obscenity filed against her after Hollywood actor Richard Gere kissed her at an event in Rajasthan in 2007.According to the Metropolitan Magistrate Ketaki Chavan, Shilpa Shetty appeared to have clarified her position shortly after the incident. After considering the police report and documents presented, the Magistrate was satisfied that the charges against Shilpa were groundless and hence she was discharged from the offences.
“Not a single element of any of the alleged offence is being satisfied in the complaint. Moreover, none of the papers annexed with the final report discloses act of present accused so as to bring her within the purview of Section 34 of IPC (common intention),” the order observed. Speaking of the alleged case, the accused were booked under the IPC sections 292, 293 294 (Obscenity) and some sections of the Information Technology Act and Indecent Representation of Women (Prohibition) Act. While the original complaint was issued in Rajasthan, Shilpa Shetty filed a plea to transfer her cases to Mumbai. It was in 2017, when the Supreme Court granted permission to Shetty’s petition.

 The incident dates back to 2007 when Richard Gere was attending a truck drivers rally to spread an awareness about safe sex as part of an AIDS awareness campaign. ‘No condom, no sex,’ Gere attempted to shout in a heavily-accented Hindi to thousands of truck drivers who had gathered to watch him and Shilpa Shetty. The truck drivers were repeating his words. Suddenly, Gere caught Shilpa and kissed her on her cheek after kissing her hand. Gere had just released a film in Hollywood on dance where he does the same sequence with Jennifer Lopez. He attempted a repeat of the same scene on Shilpa inviting the ire of the moral police. Shilpa later called a press conference to defend Gere. Meanwhile, on the work front, Shilpa was last seen in 'Hungama 2' with Paresh Rawal, Meezaan and Pranitha Subhash in lead roles. The film was released on an OTT platform and it received mixed reviews.Next, she will be seen in Sabbir Khan's 'Nikamma' co-starring Abhimanyu Dassani and Shirley Setia in lead roles.