The Bombay High Court will hear a plea by actress Kangana Ranaut and her sister Rangoli Chandel seeking relief from a FIR that accused the sisters of communal hatred through on Twitter, reported NDTV. The court is expected to hear the plea, filed by Advocate Rizwan Siddique, on Tuesday afternoon. After being summoned once again by Mumbai Police on November 23-24, Ranaut and Chandel approached the Bombay High Court, hoping to shake off the complaint, which the Mumbai Police had filed on orders of a magistrate. The sisters have challenged the FIR as well as the magistrate’s order, according to reports by the Indian Express and Bar & Bench
In October, the Bandra Metropolitan Magistrate’s court had ordered the Mumbai Police to investigate a complaint filed by Munawwar Ali Sayyed, a casting director and fitness trainer, which referred to the sisters’ tweets and other statements. Sayyed had reportedly submitted that Ranaut has been defaming the film industry by calling it nepotistic on Twitter and in TV interviews. He also said that Ranaut was creating division between artists from Hindu and Muslim communities and her tweets had hurt his religious sentiments. The magistrate had ordered that the Mumbai Police take cognizance of the sisters’ alleged hateful tweets and statements given in interviews and proceed to file a complaint.
The Bandra Police Station had then registered an FIR against Ranaut and Chandel for promoting enmity between groups on religious or racial grounds, for deliberate acts hurting religious sentiments, and for sedition. Ranaut and Chandel have now sought quashing of the FIR against them for allegedly “trying to create hatred and communal tension” through their social media posts.
The sisters’ plea challenges the magistrate’s order as well as the FIR itself, which alleges that they tried to create hatred and communal tension through their social media posts. It has also asked the court to stay the summons ordering the sisters’ to appear before the police for questioning and direction to the police to not take any coercive steps against them.
The Mumbai Police had issued another summons to the sisters for November 23-24 to record their statement, after summoning them twice earlier, during which the sisters said they were away from Mumbai.
