AIB Knockout row: No interim relief for Ranveer Singh & Arjun Kapoor

In a setback for Bollywood stars Ranveer Singh and Arjun Kapoor, the Bombay High Court on Tuesday refused to grant any interim-protection to the actors. The HC while posting the matter for hearing on April 3, asked the actors to serve the copy of their plea to the complainant.

A division bench of Justice Rajendra Savant and Justice Sarang Kotwal refused to pass any interim order granting relief to the actors as the duo failed to serve a copy to the Pune-based complainant Santosh Dundkar.

The duo – Ranveer and Arjun are named in the FIRs registered in Mumbai and Pune under charges of obscenity. The actors were booked for attending the All India Bakchod (AIB) Knockout show.

The show organised by the AIB team was also attended by dozens of other bollywood celebrities including producer-director Karan Johar, actress Deepika Padukone, Alia Bhatt and several others. The show was held in Worli in 2014 however its video was uploaded on YouTube a year after in 2015.

The video of the show had become viral within a few days wherein the actors, were seen speaking in abusive language. This aspect of the show had not gone down well with several and accordingly the actors received a lot of flak from some people like Dundkar, who had filed a private complaint in a Magistrate Court.

Having admitted the complaint, the Magistrate had directed for registration of a First Information Report (FIR) against the actors and the convenors of the show.

Aggrieved by the orders, Ranveer and Arjun petitioned the HC seeking quashing of the FIR registered against them. However, they failed to follow the due process of serving copy to the complainant.