A Mumbai court has re-issued a bailable warrant against actor Malaika Arora after she failed to appear as a witness in the case pertaining to alleged attack on an NRI businessman by Saif Ali Khan at a five-star hotel here in 2012.
Arora was part of the group that had gone for dinner with Khan at the hotel when the alleged incident took place on February 22, 2012.
Chief Judicial Magistrate (Esplanade court) K S Zanwar is currently recording the testimony of witnesses in the case.
The court first issued a bailable warrant against Arora on February 15. It was re-issued on Monday as she did not turn up before the court.
The matter will be next heard on April 29.
Saif Ali Khan and two other accused were arrested following a complaint filed by the businessman - Iqbal Mir Sharma. The three were later released on bail.
The actor was accompanied by his wife Kareena Kapoor, her sister Karisma Kapoor, Malaika Arora, Amrita Arora and some male friends at the hotel when the brawl broke out.
According to police, when Sharma protested the raucous chatter of the actor and his friends, Saif allegedly threatened them and subsequently punched Sharma in the nose, fracturing it.
The NRI businessman also accused Saif and his friends of hitting his father-in-law Raman Patel.
Saif, on the other hand, has claimed that Sharma made provocative statements and used abusive language against the women accompanying him, which led to the ruckus.
Saif and his two friends – Shakeel Ladak and Bilal Amrohi – have been charge-sheeted under section 325 (assault) of the Indian Penal Code.
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