Court orders inquiry against Kangana, sister

The Andheri Magistrate court on Thursday ordered an inquiry against actor Kangana Ranaut and her sister, Rangoli Chandel, in a complaint, which alleged they used hateful language against Muslims in social media to gain cheap publicity.

The complaint has been filed by advocate Ali Kaashif Khan Deshmukh, stating that on April 15, Ms. Chandel posted a defamatory and objectionable statement against ‘jamati’ from her Twitter account. Thereafter, her account was suspended. Ms. Ranaut supported her statement.

Short video

On April 18, Ms. Ranaut posted a short video on various social media platform accounts and called a section of Muslims (‘jamati’) as terrorist. Thus, both the accused posted hateful and derogatory statements against the community. They have misused the social media platforms to gain cheap publicity and personal gain.

The complaint is filed for offences punishable under sections 153A (promoting enmity between different groups on grounds of religion, race, place of birth, residence, language, etc., and doing acts prejudicial to maintenance of harmony), 153B (imputations, assertions prejudicial to national-integration), 298 (uttering words etc with deliberate intent to wound religious feelings), and 505 (statements conducing to public mischief), 195A (threatening any person to give false evidence), 298 (uttering, words, etc., with deliberate intent to wound the religious feelings of any person) of the Indian Penal Code.

The court read the complaint and said, “allegations are based upon the comments of accused on social media. Evidence against accused is of electronic nature. Therefore, inquiry at the hands of police is necessary for proceeding against the accused. Such inquiry will be helpful to decide the roles of accused.”

The court ordered inquiry reported to be called in under section 202 (postponement of issue of process) of the Code of Criminal Procedure from the police station concerned.