Bombay High Court quashes Preity Zinta's molestation case against Ness Wadia

The Bombay High Court, on Monday, quashed Bollywood actress Preity Zinta's 2014 case against industrialist Ness Wadia, ANI reported. 

The court had suggested Preity and Ness to consider 'finishing off' the case on October 1, this year. A division bench of Justices Ranjit More and Bharti Dangre was hearing a petition filed by Wadia seeking to quash the case lodged against him in 2014 by Preity for allegedly outraging her modesty. 

In his petition, Wadia claimed the case arose out of "personal vengeance" and that the incident was merely a "misunderstanding".

The bench suggested the parties settle the matter."Just finish it off now," Justice More had said while directing both Wadia and Zinta to appear before the court on October 9. 

Zinta's advocate had informed the court that she is willing to settle the matter if Wadia is ready to apologise. He even mentioned that they were not insisting on a written apology. The industrialist, however,had refused to apologise.

"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," Wadia's counsel Abad Ponda told High Court.

The alleged incident had taken place at the Wankhede Stadium on May 30, 2014 during an Indian Premier League (IPL) match. Zinta and Wadia are co-owners of the Kings XI Punjab IPL team. 

According to the complaint, Wadia was allegedly abusing the team staff over ticket distribution when Zinta asked him to calm down as their team was winning. He, however, abused and molested her by grabbing her arm, the actor had alleged.

Zinta had lodged an FIR against Wadia on June 13, 2014 under IPC 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).

In February this year, police had filed a charge sheet in the case against Wadia. However, he was granted bail on the surety of Rs 20,000 by the end of the day.

(With inputs from PTI)