Shiney Gets Bail, Will Have To Spend Two More Nights In Jail
Bollywood actor Shiney Ahuja, granted bail by Bombay High Court in a rape case on Thursday, will have to spend two more nights in the Arthur Road jail as his family could not complete some
Bollywood actor Shiney Ahuja, granted bail by Bombay High Court in a rape case on Thursday, will have to spend two more nights in the Arthur Road jail as his family could not complete some necessary paper work.
The court granted him bail on cash amount of Rs 50,000 but his family was not able to complete the paper work in the trial court at Sewri, family friend and filmmaker Ashoke Pandit told PTI.
"As soon as we got the news about the court granting bail, we rushed to Sewri court but could not complete the formalities before the close of working hours of the court," said Pandit.
Shiney would have to spend two more nights in jail as the court will remain closed tomorrow on the occasion of Gandhi Jayanti.
Shiney will come out of jail only on Saturday and will go to Delhi as per the court orders, Pandit said.
The court has asked him to stay in Delhi till the trial begins in Mumbai.
The actor, facing charges of raping his domestic help, was arrested on June 14 and has been lodged in jail since then.
The Bombay High Court ordered Shiney to stay in Delhi till the trial begins. Justice A P Deshpande enlarged the actor on payment of Rs 50,000 cash with a condition that he would stay in Delhi and report to the nearest police station regularly.
On a query by the Court, the actor's lawyer said Shiney hails from Delhi and he may be allowed to stay there.
The court ruled that Shiney would be permitted to come to Mumbai only during the trial.
The actor was asked to surrender his passport and refrain from offering any inducement to witnesses, directly or indirectly and warned against tampering with evidence.
The actor was allowed to be released on cash bail of Rs 50,000 but he will have to provide one or two sureties of like amount within a period of three weeks.
Shiney was arrested after his maid lodged a complaint with Oshivara police station that the actor had raped her at his residence. The wife and child of the actor were not at home when the alleged incident occurred.
Earlier, the actor's bail plea had been rejected twice by the lower court. Being aggrieved, he moved the High Court.
The actor may be released from Arthur Road jail this evening after he pays the surety, his lawyer said.
Shiney has five films in hand, namely, 'Migration', 'Har Pal', 'Chalo Movie', 'Accident' and 'Take two', Bollywood sources said.
Police has filed a 109-page chargesheet against Shiney accusing him of raping his domestic help at his residence.
Shiney's lawyer Shirish Gupte and Srikant Shivade argued that evidence indicated a consensual sexual intercourse between the actor and the complainant girl.
"I (Shiney) am not a saint in a sense, but not a rapist," said advocate Gupte, representing Shiney.
Gupte argued that medical and other evidence suggested that intercourse was entirely with the girl's consent.
"She was habituated to this (intercourse)", he contended, saying that "she had history of closeness to men".
Gupte said that as per medical reports, there were no injuries on Shiney's body, barring one between two fingers of hand. "It could be love-bites... or she clutched his hand very hard," he said, adding that had the girl resisted, she could have scratched Shiney's face, or upper body, and face.
Gupte also alleged that on the night before the incident, the girl had called on Shiney's landline number 10 times from her cellphone.
Gupte said that there were no injuries on the girl's body, nor were there any signs of damage to her clothes, to suggest use of force.
Also, no body fluids were found on her clothes, he pointed out. The girl's "pattern of behaviour" shows that she was a consenting party", Shiney's lawyer argued.
The girl had told the police that on June 13, a day before the incident, Shiney had touched her in a wrong way when she had clambered on basin to turn on overhead water tank.
She did not tell this to other maid servants, or to anybody else, Gupte pointed out.
Even in the statement recorded before magistrate, the girl used the word 'atyachar' (atrocity) and did not mention rape," he argued.
Gupte also mentioned that though the victim's vaginal swab was taken for examination, medical report talks about 'slide', and not a swab. "What happened to swab'" he asked.
Refuting the lower court's observation that Shiney was "influential person", and he may pressurise victim if released on bail, Gupte said, "he is not on high pedestal of acting... he is a small-time actor.
Shiney's wife Anupam, reacting to High Court order, said "I'm overwhelmed to hear that Shiney has been granted bail. We've full faith in judicial system." PTI