Relief for Shah Rukh Khan in 2017 stampede case, SC says 'Celebrities have equal rights'

Actor Shah Rukh Khan gets relief from Supreme Court in 2017 stampede case that took place in Vadodara Railway Station. The Gujarat High Court's April 2022 decision to quash a criminal case filed against Shah Rukh Khan was upheld and the plea filed by a complainant was rejected by a bench of Justice Ajay Rastogi and Justice CT Ravikumar.

The Supreme Court said that celebrities have the same rights that normal citizens enjoy and cannot be made vicariously culpable. The court further said that Khan is not responsible for ensuring everyone’s safety and guarantee while travelling by train. It said ‘If somebody travels by train, there is no personal guarantee. A celebrity has equal rights like every other citizen of the country.’ The bench added, ‘He (Khan) is a celebrity but that doesn’t mean he can control everyone else. Let us focus on more important subjects that deserve attention and time of this court.’

While promoting his film ‘Raees’, the actor and the production team travelled from Mumbai to Delhi by train in January 2017. When the train reached Vadodara, a huge crowd gathered at the railway station. A local politician, Farheed Khan Pathan, suffered a heart attack at the railway station during the stampede-like situation as a result of capturing actor’s glimpse.

A Vadodara magisterial court had issued summons to Shah Rukh Khan based on the complaint of Congress leader Jitendra Solanki who pressed for lodging an FIR against the actor for throwing ‘smiley balls’ and ‘t-shirts’ at the crowd as part of the promotion that led to the alleged stampede.

On the work front, SRK recently has a cameo in Alia Bhatt and Ranbir Kapoor starrer ‘Brahmastra: Part One – Shiva'. He will next be seen in ‘Pathaan’ which is set to hit the screens in January next year in Hindi, Tamil and Telugu languages. Apart from this, he will also be seen in ‘Dunki’ and ‘Jawan’.

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