A Mumbai court on Thursday ordered an inquiry against actor Kangana Ranaut and her sister Rangoli Chandel for allegedly posting derogatory tweets against Muslims, reported Live Law.
Metropolitan Magistrate Bhagawat T Zirape said the inquiry would be helpful in deciding the role of the accused. The court also asked the police to submit an inquiry report by December 5.
The order came after advocate Ali Kashif Khan Deshmukh approached the court, saying that the Amboli police station had not taken any action on a complaint filed by him against the sisters.
The complainant said that Chandel posted objectionable comments against members of the Tablighi Jamaat on her social media account on April 15. Following this, her account was suspended by Twitter.
Deshmukh said that Ranaut supported Chandel’s comments. He said the actor also posted a short video on April 18 on various social media accounts, calling Jamaatis terrorists. “Thus, both the accused posted hateful and derogatory statements against [the] Muslim community,” the complaint said.
It said that the sisters misused social media to gain “cheap publicity and personal gain”, adding that they spread hatred against the Muslim community.
The court noted that the video was not available on record. “Allegations are based on comments of accused on social media platform,” it said. “Evidence against the accused appears to be electronic in nature. Therefore, inquiry at the hands of police is necessary for proceeding against the proposed accused.”
On October 22, the advocate had filed another complaint before the Andheri Magistrate Court, accusing Ranaut of sedition and causing disharmony between two religious groups through her tweets. He had further claimed that Ranaut posted “malicious and defamatory” tweets, terming the judiciary as “Papu Sena” following a Bandra court’s order.
The Bandra court had directed the police to file a first information report against Ranaut and Chandel for allegedly trying to create communal tension through their tweets and interviews. The complainant in the case, casting director Munnawarali Sayyed, had said that an investigation was needed to ascertain the motive behind their tweets and to find out “who are the people backing such hatred to create communal tensions and sentiments against the government”. The Mumbai Police had summoned the sisters on October 21 in connection with this case.
Ranaut has made several controversial statements recently. On October 14, the Karnataka Police had filed a first information report against the actor for her tweet against farmers protesting the Centre’s new agriculture laws. She had referred to the protestors as “terrorists”.
The actor had become entangled in a row with the Maharashtra government after she said that Mumbai felt like Pakistan-occupied Kashmir to her and that she feared living in the city. She had also criticised the Mumbai Police for its handling of actor Sushant Singh Rajput’s death. The Centre gave Ranaut Y-plus security last month.
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