Indian government is examining a demand for taking back the Padma Shri award conferred on Bollywood actor Saif Ali Khan in the wake of a Mumbai court framing charges against him. RTI activist SC Agrawal had filed a complaint with the Union Home Ministry on March 14 this year, demanding stripping the actor of the award conferred in 2010 as the Mumbai court had framed charges against him for alleged scuffle in a restaurant there.
In response to a subsequent RTI application filed to know the status of his complaint, the Home Ministry has replied to Agrawal that “the matter is under examination.”
The 43-year-old actor was bestowed with the Padma Shri in 2010 for his contribution in the field of art.
It is alleged that Khan had punched on the nose of a South-Africa based businessman at Taj Hotel, Colaba in February 2012.
Khan, who is married to actor Kareena Kapoor, also faces criminal charges in Rajasthan for allegedly hunting the blackbuck deer, a protected species, while on a film shoot in 1998. Actor Salman Khan is also an accused in that case.