Physical Address
304 North Cardinal St.
Dorchester Center, MA 02124
The Bombay High Court on Wednesday accepted a statement made by the Mumbai Police that it moved to cancel a lookout circular issued against actor Kamaal R Khan for not depositing his licensed gun during the Lok Sabha election. A bench of Justices Revati Mohite-Dere and Shivkumar Dige disposed of a petition that Khan had filed seeking the cancellation of the lookout circular against him.
An lookout circular is a notice issued to the Indian Bureau of Immigration to curb foreign travel of people facing prosecution. The aim is to prevent persons of interest from leaving the country or to detain them and is issued at the instance of an investigating agency.
The actor had approached the High Court through lawyer Sana Raees Khan seeking the cancellation of the lookout circular issued by the Versova police station in Mumbai for not depositing his licensed gun during the Lok Sabha election period.
Khan, at that time, was alleged to have been in London for some medical treatment. Advocate Khan argued that the lookout circular was issued maliciously against the actor in an offence without any prior sanction of the magistrate which is mandatory. “The lookout circular is defective because it doesn’t mention the reason which is a pre-condition for issuing it. There is a gross procedural violation as 41 A notice was issued three months after the issuance of the lookout circular,” submitted advocate Khan.
Additional Public Prosecutor AA Takalkar, appearing for the police, had opposed any relief being granted to the actor as it was submitted that during the election, all arms license holders were told to deposit their firearms with the police. However, Khan had been evading and was giving evasive replies to their request, Takalkar alleged.
Takalkar pointed out that Khan had said he was abroad during the Lok Sabha elections, but his firearm was in Uttar Pradesh. “A team of policemen had even reached his house there only to be told he had not been there for decades and no such firearm was located there. It was only after looking at his evasive attitude that the lookout circular was issued,” submitted Takalkar.
After listening to both sides, the bench directed Khan to deposit the firearm with the police on November 14, days before the Maharashtra Assembly election was going to be held.
After being pulled up by the court, Khan, who was located in Dubai last month, directed his relative to hand over the firearm to the police.
On Wednesday, Takalkar submitted that the firearm had been submitted by Khan and the police had sought the cancellation of the lookout circular as the issue was resolved.
