A Magistrate Court in Bandra has ordered an FIR to be registered against actor Kangana Ranaut and her sister Rangoli Chandel for “trying to create hatred and communal tension between Hindus and Muslims” through their tweets.
Magistrate Jaydeo Ghule passed the order on a complaint by casting director and fitness trainer Munnawarali Sayyed who sought that the Ranauts be booked under various sections of the Indian Penal Code, 153A (Promoting enmity between different groups), 295A (Deliberate and malicious act to outrage religious feelings of any class by insulting their religion) and 124A Sedition.
In the private complaint filed through advocate Ravish Zamindar, Gule has pointed out several tweets by Ranaut on the Sushant Singh Rajput’s Case, the sadhus lynching in Palghar and her tweets calling Mumbai PoK.
He has alleged that she has continuously been defaming the Bollywood film industry as hub of nepotism, favouritism and is portraying people working there as “drug addicts, communally biased people, murderers etc. through her tweets from her official twitter handle and TV interviews, creating a very bad image of Bollywood in the minds of the common man.
He says that an investigation is required to ascertain “the real motive behind such hate tweets and who are the people backing such hatred to create communal tensions and sentiments against the government.”
Agreeing with the complainant, the court says “Prima facie on perusal of the complaint and submissions I found a cognizable offence has been committed by the accused….A thorough investigation is necessary by an expert.”
This is the second FIR against Ranaut for her tweets, the first FIR being registered in Bengaluru.
Giving the example of her tweets with reference to the lynching of Hindu Sadhus at Palghar, calling the BMC as “BABUR SENA” and claiming that she is the first person to make a movie on Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj and Rani Laxmi bai of Jhansi, he says “Kangana is creating divisions between Hindu Artistes and Muslim Artistes .. is maliciously bringing religion in almost all her tweets.”
On her tweet calling Mumbai POK, he says that the tweet is misleading and false as Mumbai is one of the “safest city in the world where a women’s safety is of utmost importance.”
“I say that the said tweet is made maliciously to create disaffection towards Maharashtra Government by falsely defaming Mumbai which is the Capital of Maharashtra and commercial capital of India.” the complaint reads.
“Kangana went on to tweet against the Hon’ble Chief Minister of Maharashtra Shri. Uddhav Thakre and against its government agencies to not only lower the image of the Hon’ble Chief Minister of Maharashtra and government agencies but also to create disaffection amongst common people against Maharashtra Government which is legally established by law in India.” the complaint says.
The complaint further talks about how Chandel’s hate filled tweet automatically got her account suspended.
