Rinke Khanna left out of Aashirwad case

 

Mumbai: In a relief to veteran actress Dimple Kapadia’s daughter Rinke Khanna, the Bombay high court on Thursday discharged her from the domestic violence case filed by her deceased father Rajesh Khanna’s alleged live-in-partner Anita Advani.

 

Justice M.L. Tahaliyani was hearing a petition filed by Dimple seeking quashing of proceedings against her and other family members, including daughter Twinkle and son-in-law Akshay Kumar.

In her petition, Dimple contended that the complainant and respondents at no time lived together and it was not a shared household and hence they could not be charged under the Domestic Violence Act.

 

Ms Advani on the other hand had claimed that the respondents allegedly evicted her from Khanna’s suburban bungalow ‘Aashirwad’ when she tried to inform them that Kaka (Khanna) was dying. She had sought monthly maintenance and a three-bed room flat in Bandra.

 

On Ms Advani’s complaint in 2013, the magistrate’s court in Bandra had issued notices to Dimple and other family members seeking their replies, following which they approached the high court seeking quashing of the proceedings against them.

 

Senior counsel Shirish Gupte and Mahesh Jethmalani, appearing for the family, argued that Ms Advani cannot claim relief under the Domestic Violence Act and maintenance as Dimple and her family were not living with Khanna or Ms Advani.

 

They also argued that Dimple was Khanna’s legally wedded wife and as such no other woman could claim share in the wealth left behind by her husband. According to them, a woman in a live-in relationship with a married man cannot claim relief under the Domestic Violence Act.

 

After hearing arguments, Justice Tahaliyani observed that Rinke Khanna was married and living in Kolkata with her husband and had nothing to do with the case and hence her name should be dropped from the complaint. The judge removed her name from the accused list after Ms Advani’s lawyer Mrinalini Deshmukh agreed with the judge’s suggestion.

 

Ms Advani though refused the suggestion of dropping Akshay and Twinkle’s name saying that both were allegedly responsible for throwing her out of ‘Ashirwad’ after the death of Khanna.

Advocate Deshmukh argued that Dimple and her daughter should pay monetary compensation to Ms Advani for looking after Khanna.