'Tough action if he skips hearing': Special police team to serve warrant on Salman Khan in Pan Masala case

JAIPUR: The District Consumer Disputes Redressal Commission Wednesday ordered the Director General of Police (DGP) to form a special team tasked with serving a third bailable warrant on Bollywood superstar Salman Khan. The move comes in connection with an ongoing case regarding an allegedly misleading advertisement for Rajshree Pan Masala.

The commission has underscored the necessity for strict enforcement of the warrant, warning of more severe consequences if Khan fails to appear at the next hearing on Apr 6. The commission emphasised that should Khan and the officials from Rajshree Pan Masala fail to respond to this warrant service, non-bailable warrants (NBWs) will be issued against them.

The directive was issued by the commission's Jaipur II bench, which consists of chairman Gyarsi Lal Meena and members Ajay Kumar and Supriya Agrawal. The commission has instructed the DGP to ensure that the Jaipur police commissioner and the deputy commissioner collaborate to create a special task force capable of traveling to Mumbai to serve the warrant in person.

The case has seen bailable warrants issued against Khan on Jan 15, Feb 9, and March 16. Similarly, Rajshree Pan Masala's directors, Rakesh Kumar Chaurasia and Dinesh Kumar Chaurasia, faced similar warrants on Feb 11.

Notably, the commission pointed out that Khan has "continuously violated interim directions related to the ban on misleading advertisements," and highlighted that his attempts to revise previous decisions were dismissed by the state commission on March 16.

The panel firmly stated, "Celebrity status does not grant any individual a special right to be above the law," emphasising that the repeated absence and evasion of service of bailable warrants undermine the integrity of the legal process and could erode consumer trust.

The case was initiated by a complaint from Yogendra Singh, who accused the parties involved in alleged misleading trade practices and sought both a ban on the product's sale and an end to Khan's endorsement.