In 2008, Santosh Rai had filed a complaint against Govinda accusing the actor of slapping and intimidating him. Justice M L Tahaliyani nullified the private complaint lodged by Rai before a metropolitan magistrate as there is no material against Govinda for criminal intimidation. In February 2009, Rai had filed the complaint against Govinda under sections 323(Punishment for voluntarily causing hurt), 504 (Intentional insult with intent to provoke breach) and 506 (1) (criminal intimidation) of the Indian Penal Code. The complaint was filed pursuant to the actor slapping Rai, a visitor on his film sets, on January 16, 2008.

 

Govinda had approached the High Court seeking to quash the proceedings initiated against him by the magistrate court. The High Court took note of a police report which states that the incident did not occur in the manner stated by Rai. The court said, “No doubt some incident had occurred. However, there is no material to prove criminal intimidation. It appears that the complainant was instigated to file the complaint after a year.” Justice Tahaliyani said, “ It further observed that the accused had not acted in any manner which caused alarm to the complainant. “Such a prosecution cannot be allowed to continue and it deserves to be quashed.”