'Shilpa can't be jailed for pecks on cheeks!'

New Delhi, Apr 27: The demand from some sections for the arrest of Bollywood actor Shilpa Shetty after she received Richard Gere's 'peck on the cheek' at an event to promote AIDS awareness has evoked sharp reactions from Shilpa's friends and well wishers in the industry. Describing the demand for arrest of Shilpa, for what was just a 'peck on her cheek' by Gere, as 'amateur and frivolous,' her friend and publicist Dale Bhagwagar slammed the people who exaggerated the 'peck' as 'obscene kisses.'

Responding to a petition by advocate Poonam Chand Bhandari who had filed a complaint on April 17 at SJM-4, stating that Gere's forced kiss on Shilpa in public, amounted to an obscene act, a lower court in Rajasthan yesterday issued an arrest warrant against Hollywood actor Richard Gere and a summon against actress Shilpa Shetty for the kissing controversy.

Saying that Shilpa did not even resist the act, Bhandari demanded that these two be fined or jailed under Section 294 of the Indian Penal Code. He also said the television channel had repeatedly telecast the kiss, causing further annoyance.

Reacting to the demands for jailing her and an alleged statement by a police official in Jaipur that "if proven guilty in the case filed against them by two local lawyers, Gere and Shetty could be sentenced to six years imprisonment", Bhagwagar said,''it is amateur and frivolous on the part of a government official to state that someone can get jailed for pecks on the cheeks.'' If that is the case, more than half the country will have to be jailed.'' Shilpa, who is currently out of Mumbai, will be returning by the weekend.

UNI