A magistrate court in Mumbai on Friday directed the city police to submit a progress report on an inquiry against actor Kangana Ranaut and her sister Rangoli Chandel for posting allegedly hateful messages on social media, Live Law reported. The magistrate passed the order after the Amboli Police sought more time to file their report on the complaint.
The tweets, made by the sisters in April last year, allegedly demonstrate “hate against the Muslim community”, according to the complainant.
In October last year, the magistrate court had asked the Amboli Police to conduct an inquiry into the complaint, filed by an advocate, and submit a report by December 5.
The police, however, failed to file the report within the time frame given by the court, which later extended the deadline to January 5, giving them a “final chance”. But the police again missed the deadline.
During the hearing on Friday, the police asked for more time from the court. Complainant Ali Kaashif Deshmukh then sought for process to be issued under section 204 of the Code of Criminal Procedure against the two sisters.
Process is issued when prima facie allegations in a complaint are found to be true, and an accused is given a legal notice about the case against them. It may mark the beginning of a trial.
“During the hearing I led a reply stating that the police was already given a final chance on the last occasion,” Deshmukh said. “I have given them my statement, an electronic evidence certificate under section 65B of the Evidence act, details of the accused, as well as witnesses.”
The court then posted the matter for further hearing on March 4.
In the complaint Deshmukh alleged that Ranaut’s elder sister, Rangol, allegedly posted a tweet against Muslims in April, 2020, following which her account was suspended. He alleged that Ranaut then posted a video in support of her sister.
In the clip, the actor allegedly refers to members of the Jamati Muslim community as “terrorists”. The complaint is led for offences under sections of the Indian Penal Code, related to disrupting communal harmony.
Ranaut is often the centre of controversies over her tweets. On February 4, Twitter removed two tweets by the actor for violating the company’s rules. Both were related to the farmers’ protest.
The action came two days after Ranaut, a vocal supporter of the Narendra Modi government, had responded to a tweet by pop star Rihanna by calling the protesting farmers “terrorists”, and called the musician a fool. Rihanna had shared a CNN article about the internet shutdowns in Delhi to suppress protests against the new farm laws.
On January 20, her account was temporarily restricted after she made some controversial statements about the cast and crew of Amazon web series Tandav on the social media platform. The actor blamed “librus” for the action, a term she uses for her critics.
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