Mumbai court drops obscenity charges against Shilpa Shetty in Richard Gere kissing row

The Ballard Pierre Metropolitan Magistrate's Court on Tuesday acquitted actress Shilpa Shetty of the obscenity charges pressed against her in a case wherein she and Hollywood actor Richard Gere had kissed in public at a promotional event in Rajasthan in 2007.

Mumbai:The Ballard Pierre Metropolitan Magistrate's Court on Tuesday dropped obscenity charges pressed against actress Shilpa Shetty in the controversial 2007 Richard Gere kissing case. The Hollywood actor kissed Shetty in public at a promotional event in Rajasthan in 2007, which sparked protests across the country.

The bench headed by Metropolitan Magistrate Ketki Chavan cleared the actress of the charges, citing the allegations as 'baseless'.

The warrant against Shilpa Shetty and Gere's arrest was issued in April 2007 by an Indian court in Rajasthan, although a two-judge bench of the Supreme Court had later suspended the arrest warrants.

Shetty was reportedly booked under the IPC sections 292, 293 294 for obscenity and some sections of the Information Technology Act and Indecent Representation of Women (Prohibition) Act.

She had filed a plea to transfer her case to the Mumbai court, though the case was originally registered in Rajasthan. Shetty’s petition was granted in 2017, after which the case was moved to Mumbai.