Kangana Ranaut, her sister record statement before police in sedition case

Actor Kangana Ranaut and her sister Rangoli Chandel recorded their statement before the Mumbai Police on Friday in a sedition case, reported PTI. In in a video posted earlier, Ranaut claimed that she was being targeted for expressing her views.

Ranaut and Chandel arrived at a police station in Bandra at 1 pm amid heavy security, complying with a Bombay High Court order. The High Court had also granted the sisters interim protection from arrest.

An unidentified official told NDTV that the duo was questioned for over two hours. “We needed to record her statements regarding more than 100 tweets that she had put on Twitter,” the official said.

The case pertains to a first information report registered against them, as directed by a Mumbai court, in October for allegedly trying to create hatred and communal tension through their social media posts.

The complainant, fitness instructor and casting director Munnawarali Sayyed, had said 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 complaint also accused Ranaut of “maliciously bringing religion in all her tweets”. He said that a divide was being created among artistes belonging to different religions.

The duo was booked under various sections of the Indian Penal Code pertaining to committing malicious or deliberate acts with the intention of outraging religious feelings of citizens, sedition, promoting enmity between different groups on grounds of religion, race, place of birth, residence or language and common intention.

The sisters had then moved the High Court on November 23 seeking to quash the FIR against them.

Meanwhile, Ranaut said in a video posted earlier on Friday that the whole world was watching the way she was being exploited. “My house was demolished illegally,” she said in the video. “When I talk about the welfare of the farmers there are cases being registered against me almost every day. In one instance there is a case against me because I laughed.”

She said that a case was lodged against her sister Chandel, who spoke out against the exploitation of doctors during the early stages of the coronavirus pandemic in India. “I was also named in that case when I was not even on Twitter,” the actor said.

Ranaut said she did not know why she was ordered to mark her attendance at the police station. “... and no one is telling me what kind of attendance is this? I have also been told that I can’t talk about the torture that I am being subjected to with anyone.”

She also brought the Supreme Court in her video, asking if it was the “medieval age” where women are burnt alive and not allowed to say anything. The actor added that the country would have to face the same exploitation it did during the British’s rule in India if “nationalist voices are suppressed”.

In her tweet, she sought support from people, saying that she stood by them.

In another tweet, she said that if one was “anti-India”, they would get lot of support, work and appreciation. “[But] If you are a nationalist then you will have to stand alone, be your own support system and appreciate your own integrity,” Ranaut tweeted. “After hours of grilling at police station on my way to Bhopal.”

Ranaut, who has made several controversial statements, is also facing an FIR filed in October by the Karnataka Police for her tweet against farmers protesting the Centre’s new agriculture laws. She had referred to the protestors as “terrorists”.

On November 3, lyricist and poet Javed Akhtar filed a criminal defamation complaint against Ranaut over her comments about him in an interview with Republic TV in July. While speaking about the death of actor Sushant Singh Rajput, Ranaut reportedly told Republic TV’s Editor-in-Chief Arnab Goswami that Akhtar was part of a “suicide gang” and that “he can get away with pretty much anything in Mumbai”.