Kangana, sister to appear before Mumbai Police in January
Actor Kangana Ranaut and her sister Rangoli Chandel will appear before Mumbai Police on January 8, the Bombay High Court has ordered. The order came a day after the sisters filed a petition in the court, seeking to cancel a First Information Report (FIR) registered against them. For the unversed, a complaint was filed against them for their alleged hateful comments on social media.
Kangana and Rangoli were asked twice, on October 26-27 and on November 9-10, to appear before the police for questioning. But they failed to appear, saying that they were busy with their brother's wedding. After that, police officials issued a third notice to the sisters, asking them to appear for questioning in the matter on November 23-24.
Casting director and fitness trainer Munawwar Ali Sayyed had filed an FIR against the Ranaut sisters, alleging that they were trying to spread communal tension through their social media posts. He also accused them of creating a bad image of Bollywood and bringing religion in all their tweets. The Bandra Metropolitan Magistrate court had last month ordered registration of FIR in the matter.
After the court's order, the sisters were booked under IPC Sections 153A (promoting enmity between different groups on grounds of religion, race, etc.), 295A (deliberate acts to outrage religious feelings of any class by insulting their religion) and 124A (sedition) of the Indian Penal Code (IPC). To recall, the Karnataka Police had earlier booked the actor over her controversial tweet against farmers.
"On prima facie perusal of complaint and submissions, I found the cognizable offense has been committed by the accused. Total allegations are based upon comment on social and electronic media, such as Twitter and interviews," said Bandra Metropolitan Magistrate Jaydeo Y Ghule in his order.
On a related note, Kangana has been involved in a bitter war-of-words with the Maharashtra government over the death of actor Sushant Singh Rajput. In September, Mumbai's civic body, BMC demolished part of Kangana's office citing illegal construction, a charge that the actor has denied. She later approached the court against the demolition. In fact, Kangana was also given Y-plus security amid this controversy.
