A Bandra metropolitan court ordered the registration of an FIR against Kangana Ranaut and her sister Rangoli Chandel.
The reason for the complaint was that the pair had been ‘creating divisions between communities and spreading communal hatred’.
In his order, Metropolitan Magistrate Jaydeo Khule said, “On prima facie perusal of complaint and submissions… I found the cognizable offence has been committed by the accused. Total allegations are based upon comment on electronic media, Twitter and interviews. The accused used social media like Twitter. Thorough investigation is necessary by the expert… search and seizure is necessary in this case.”
He also directed the police station to investigate this private complaint which has been filed by Munawwar Ali Sayyed, a casting director and fitness trainer, who submitted that offences have been committed by Ranaut and Chandel under sections 153A, 295A, 124 read with 34 of the Indian Penal Code through their interviews and social media accounts.
As per a reference report, the sections pertain to promoting enmity between communities, deliberate and malicious acts intending to outrage religious feelings, and sedition with common intent.
Apparently, Munawwar had been observing Kangana closely over social media and has stated in his complaint that the actress, “is continuously defaming Bollywood film industry and is portraying people working in Bollywood films as a hub of nepotism, favouritism, drug addicts, communally-biased people, murderers, etc” through her tweets and television interviews. “…(this) is creating a very bad image of Bollywood in the minds of people and even creating a communal divide and rift between people of two communities and in the mind of common man.”
The complaint referred to various tweets by Ranaut over the past few months, including a tweet where she referred to Mumbai as POK (Pakistan Occupied Kashmir).
The complaint also stated, “Police investigation is necessary to ascertain the real motive behind such hate tweets and who are the people backing such hatred to create communal tension and sentiments.“