Preity Zinta molestation case against Ness Wadia cancelled by High Court

By Ms. Moon

on October 10, 2018

A molestation case filed by actor Preity Zinta against industrialist Ness Wadia in 2014 was today cancelled by the Bombay High Court. The court had earlier asked the actress to finish off the 2014 case lodged against him by the actress for allegedly outraging her modesty.

Preity's advocate had told the court that she is willing to settle the matter if Ness is ready to apologize. However, Wadia's counsel Abad Ponda, however, said the industrialist was not ready to apologize.

"We want to bury the hatchet, but my client(Wadia) is not ready to apologise. The complainant (Zinta) wants to extract an apology and get media attention," he told HC. The bench then suggested the parties settle the matter. "Just finish it off now," Justice Ranjit More, shared by Justice Bharti Dangre, said while directing both Wadia and Zinta to appear before the court on October 9.

The alleged incident had taken place at the Wankhede Stadium on May 30, 2014, during an Indian Premier League (IPL) match. Preity and Ness are co-owners of the Kings XI Punjab IPL team. According to Preity, Ness was allegedly abusing the team staff over ticket distribution when she asked him to calm down as their team was winning. He, however, abused and molested her by grabbing her arm, Preity had alleged.

The actress had lodged a police complaint against Ness on June 13, 2014, under sections 354 (assault or criminal force to woman with intent to outrage her modesty), 504 (intentional insult), 506 (criminal intimidation) and 509 (using word, gesture or act intended to insult the modesty of a woman) of the Indian Penal Code.

In February 2018, police had filed a charge sheet in the case against Ness Wadia. Later, the industrialist approached the high court for the case to be cancelled. In his petition, Ness claimed the case arose out of "personal vengeance" and that the incident was merely a "misunderstanding".