We had earlier informed you that Bollywood actor, Govinda, who found himself in a legal soup after he slapped a commoner, Santosh Bateshwar Rai in 2008, finally apologized for his misbehavior yesterday. Govinda has now offered Ray a compensation of Rs 5 lakh as an unconditional apology for his inappropriate conduct.
Santosh was slapped by the actor back in 2008, while he was watching the shoot of ‘Money Hai Toh Honey Hai’ at the Filmistan Studio. He then filed a complaint against the actor on February 2, 2009 and appealed to the Bombay High Court for taking action against Govinda. However, the High court quashed the case as the complaint was filed a year after the incident took place and it was ruled that Rai had been instigated to take such a step. Rai then moved the Supreme Court where the case was heard by a bench then headed by Justice TS Thakur.
The court, on Monday, rejected Govinda’s counsel’s claim that the video of the actor slapping the victim was morphed and ruled that the actor either apologise to Rai or face prerecession for criminal assault. On offering Rs 5 lakh as compensation, the court left it to Rai to either accept or reject the compensation by the actor as an additional apology.
