Actor Kangana Ranaut told the Bombay high court on Monday that her tweets never caused any violent reaction, hence the FIR against her for sedition by Mumbai Police should be quashed.
The court was hearing a case against Ranaut and her sister Rangoli, who have been accused of promoting communal enmity through their posts.
Ranaut’s counsel Rizwan Siddique told a bench of Justices SS Shinde and Manish Pitale that the actor had not committed any wrong through her tweets.
“None of my tweets have invoked any reactions from the public. They will not attract a punishment as they were not followed by violence. What happened after the tweet? Was there any criminal act after my tweets?” Siddique said on behalf of Ranaut.
He said the magistrate’s court in suburban Bandra had erred in allowing registration of a FIR against Ranaut on charges including sedition.
In October last year, Ranaut and her sister were booked for allegedly promoting enmity between communities through their remarks. The Bandra Police had booked them under Indian Penal Code’s (IPC’s) sections 153-A (promoting enmity between different groups on grounds of religion, race), 295-A (deliberate acts hurting religious sentiments) and 124-A (sedition) and 34 (common intention).
The first information report (FIR) was registered following orders from a magistrate’s court in Bandra after Munawwar Ali Sayyad, a casting director and fitness trainer, filed a complaint referring to tweets and other statements of Ranaut and her sister.
In an affidavit filed in the high court earlier this month, Sayyad had said that among other things, Ranaut and Rangoli promoted “hatred and contempt, and incited disaffection towards the Maharashtra government,” through their tweets.
The high court will continue hearing the arguments on February 26.
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