Poonam Pandey booked for violating lockdown norms

New Delhi, Jan 11: The Delhi High Court on Saturday restrained from releasing Deepika Padukone-starrer 'Chhapaak' movie without due credits to the lawyer who represented the acid attack survivor, Lakshmi Agarwal, in her legal battle.

The restraint will be effective from January 15 in multiplexes and live streaming and for others from January 17.

The court directed filmmaker Meghna Gulzar to give due credit to lawyer Aparna Bhat who fought the criminal case for the acid survivor on whose life the movie is based.

It passed the order on a petition filed by Fox Studio challenging a trial court order which had directed the filmmakers to give credit to Bhat.

Delhi's Patiala House Court had earlier this week passed an order granting an ex-parte interim mandatory injunction directed that the filmmaker has to carry a line "Aparna Bhat continues to fight cases of sexual and physical violence against women" during the screening of the film.

Fox Studios then requested the Delhi High Court to set aside the trial court order.

The petitioner submitted that if the order passed in a suit filed just one day before the release of the film, is not vacated, varied or modified, then the petitioner will suffer grave injustice and irreparable harm and injury.

The movie, which hit the cinemas yesterday, is based on Laxmi's life. In 2005, at the age of 15, she was allegedly attacked by a spurned lover.

Laxmi had to undergo several surgeries. Later, she started helping other acid attack survivors and promoted campaigns to stop such gruesome attacks.

Kochi, Jan 6: A trial court on Monday framed charges against Malayalam film actor Dileep and other accused in the case of alleged abduction and molestation of a south Indian actress in 2017.

The actor and nine other accused were present in the additional special sessions court in Ernakulamwhen the charges were framed against them.

All of them have denied the charges.

On Saturday, the Court had dismissed a plea filed by Dileep, seeking to exclude him from the list of accused.

The Court had admitted the prosecution argument that there is prima facie evidence against him in the crime and dismissed the plea of the actor, who is eighth accused in the case.

The court had also not allowed a plea by the actor to grant him 10 days time to file the appeal in a higher court in the light of the Supreme Court order in November 2019 that the trial should be completed in six months.

The court is hearing the case in-camera.

On December 19, Dileep, along with his lawyers and a technical expert, had examined the contents of the electronic records at the closed room of the court.

Earlier, the Supreme Court had directed that the actor be allowed to inspect the records to enable him to present an effective defence during the trial.

In February 2017, the actress was allegedly abducted and molested by the accused.

Seven people, including the key accused 'Pulsar' Suni were arrested in connection with the actress' abduction case.

There are 10 accused in the case.

The entire act had allegedly taken place in a moving vehicle, which was filmed by the accused to blackmail her.

Dileep was subsequently arrested and arrayed as an accused in connection with offences under provisions of the Indian Penal Code and IT Act.

The top court had directed that the trial in case be concluded expeditiously, preferably within six months from the date of the judgement.

A woman judge is hearing the case.

In February 2019, the High Court, while considering a plea seeking to transfer the case to a Sessions Court headed by a woman judge to conduct the trial, had ordered the CBI special court Judge-III Ernakulam Honey M Varghese to complete the trial expeditiously.

Mumbai, Jun 15: Actor Sushant Singh Rajput's brother-in-law O.P. Singh, who is the Additional Director General of Police and posted as Special Officer in the Haryana Chief Minister's Office, suspected some foul play in the crime, it is reliably learnt on Monday. He is seeking a thorough probe into the incident.

"Sushant Singh Rajput has been murdered, he cannot commit suicide. I demand CBI enquiry into the matter," Jan Adhikar Party Chief Pappu Yadav told media persona at the actor’s residence in Patna, where his family resides.

The 34-year-old actor was found hanging at his apartment in Mumbai's Bandra on Sunday.

His sister lives in Chandigarh.

State officials said Singh has left for Mumbai soon he came to know about the suicide incident.

Expressing condolences, Haryana Chief Minister Manohar Lal Khattar said actor Rajput's death is an "irreparable loss" to not only the film industry but also for the entire society.