By Raju Vernekar
Mumbai, October 18:
Acting on a complaint lodged by a casting director Sahil Sayyed, the Bandra metropolitan magistrate court directed the Bandra police to register a case against actor Kangana Ranaut and her sister Rangoli Chandel for allegedly attempting to create communal disharmony and portraying Bollywood in a negative light through their social media posts, on Friday.
Metropolitan magistrate Jaydeo Ghule said that studying the complaint and after hearing the advocate of the complainant, prima face the accused-Kangana and her sister- have committed a “cognisable offence”. The magistrate directed the police to take appropriate action under Section 156(3) of the Code of Criminal Procedure, since he believed that a thorough investigation was necessary. Total allegations are based upon the comments made on electronic media- Twitter and interviews- and a thorough investigation by an expert is necessary, he said.
Sayyed, in his complaint, alleged that Ranaut, continuously defamed the Hindi film industry by portraying Bollywood as a “hub of nepotism”, “favouritism” and drug addicts, among other accusations. He further alleged that this “even created a bad image of Bollywood in the minds of people and created “communal divide and rift between the people of two communities. Ranaut has been “maliciously bringing religion in all her tweets” and that her sister, Rangoli, had also posted objectionable content that was intended to trigger a communal rift, he added.
On Saturday, Ranaut — who has publically sparred with the Shiv Sena-led Maharashtra government recently, posted a tweet that spoke of “another FIR against” her and said the Shiv Sena in Maharashtra seemed to be obsessed with her. In September, she irked the Maharashtra government by comparing Mumbai to Pakistan-occupied Kashmir and criticised the Mumbai police for its handling of the case related to actor Sushant Singh Rajput’s death. Later in the month, another controversy erupted after BMC partially demolished her residence citing illegal construction, prompting her to approach the court.
Besides a local court in Karnataka’s Tumakuru district also directed the police to book Ranaut over another tweet that purportedly targeted farmers protesting the recently-enacted farm laws.
“My friends here may find my talks mostly directed at movie mafia, their antinational and Hinduphobic racket. I know my time is limited here, they can get my account suspended any minute, even though I have a lot to share but I must utilise this time to expose them,” she had on Twitter.