Actress Kangana Ranaut along with her sister, Rangoli Chandel, appeared before the Bandra Police on Friday as per the Bombay High Court’s order in connection with a first information report registered against them for allegedly trying to create hatred and communal tension through their social media posts and for charges of sedition.
Kangana, who has been provided Y-plus category security with CRPF personnel, arrived amid heavy media presence at the police station in Bandra around 1 pm along with her advocate and Rangoli. She left around 3 pm after two hours of statement recording.
The Ranaut sisters’ lawyer, Rizwan Siddiqui, in an undertaking to a divisional bench comprising Justices S.S. Shinde and M.S. Karnik had said in November that both sisters would appear in front of the Mumbai Police on January 8, which had been accepted.
However, according to police sources, Kangana did not comply with the court’s order which stated that she would appear in front of the cops by 12 noon. Instead, she was late by an hour and thus the statement recording couldn’t be completed as the Mumbai Police wanted to inquire about over a 100 disputed tweets by Kangana. But Kangana gave a statement for just about 5. She is likely to be called again. Moreover, Rangoli Chandel’s statement was not recorded.
The Bombay High Court had questioned the Mumbai Police for invoking sedition charges and, at the same time, asked the Ranaut sisters to refrain from making such instigating statements in public or on social media. The HC orders had come after a plea filed by Kangana and Rangoli to quash the police FIR lodged on October 17 on the orders of the Bandra Metropolitan Magistrate Court over alleged hateful social media posts by the duo. The hearing on the same will be held on 11 January.
Previously, the Bandra police had issued summons to both sisters thrice for different dates, but they didn’t appear for them, after which the police approached the Bombay HC.
Meanwhile, Kangana Ranaut, before leaving for the police station, shared a video message on Twitter where she said that she was subjected to “torture”. “Why am I being mentally, emotionally and now physically tortured? I need answers from this nation…I stood for you and it’s time you stand for me…Jai Hind,” said her caption. Kangana addressed her followers in Hindi, saying, “Since the time I have started talking about the welfare of the nation, people have started torturing me. The entire country is watching the way I am being exploited, the entire country watched how my house was demolished illegally. Many cases are registered against me. One among them is also for laughing. All of this because I am speaking about the welfare of the farmers. My sister, Rangoli, spoke about the ill-treatment of doctors at the beginning of the corona era. There is a case against her as well. My name popped up in one case about a time when I was not even on Twitter. Usually, this does not happen but it did. Our Honourable Chief Justice rejected this saying that this case does not make any sense.”
“I have been asked to be present at the police station but no one is telling me why. What kind of attendance is this? I have also been told that I can’t talk about the torture that I am being subjected to with anyone. Are these the medieval ages when women were burnt alive and they couldn’t even talk to anyone? This torture is happening in front of the world,” Kangana further said in the video.
She also questioned the Supreme Court, adding, “I want to tell people who are watching this drama that if nationalist voices are silenced, then the kind of torture we suffered during the years of fighting for independence, we will have to suffer the same torture again.”