Thaindian News

Gurgaon, April 8 (IANS) The Gurgaon district administration will Wednesday decide on an application of actress Soha Ali Khan seeking a personal hearing in a gun licensing case. The district authorities sent her a notice seeking explanation about how the weapon for which she was licensed was used by her father to kill a black buck in Haryana in 2005.

Soha Ali Khan sent a letter to the district administration Monday, seeking a personal hearing, Deputy Commissioner Rakesh Gupta said.

She was issued the notice March 21 to explain how she obtained an arms licence despite being underage. The authorities also marked a probe into her original application file, which has gone missing from official records here.

Rakesh Gupta said the notice to Soha Ali, the actress-daughter of former cricketer Mansur Ali Khan Pataudi and actress Sharmila Tagore, has given her 15 days to send her reply.

District Magistrate Gupta also directed Additional Deputy Commissioner Abhay Singh Yadav to probe how she obtained the licence despite being underage and also how her original application file went “missing” from the official records here.

Soha Ali has been charged with obtaining an arms licence for her .22 bore rifle Nov 5, 1996 when she had not completed 21 years of age - a legal pre-requisite for possessing an arms licence.

The passport record of the actress put her year of birth at 1978 and in 1996 she was just 18 years old.

The weapon for which she was issued licence was used by her father Pataudi in a black buck poaching case in which he was arrested July 2005 by the Haryana police in Jhajjar district near here. The poaching case was registered June 5, 2005 and the weapon is still in possession of the Jhajjar police.

The poaching case is being tried in a wildlife and environment court in Faridabad town in Haryana.

Soha Ali was also asked to explain why, while moving a fresh application for renewal of her licence Sept 7, 2005 before the sub-divisional magistrate (SDM) Gurgaon, she concealed the fact that the weapon was in the possession of the Jhajjar police.