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Bollywood actress Kangana Ranaut and her sister, Rangoli Chandel have moved the Bombay High Court against an order of the Metropolitan Magistrate at Bandra directing the Bandra police to initiate investigation into a complaint filed by one Munnawarali Sayyed filed over allegedly hateful tweets by Ranaut.
The Bandra police had, pursuant to the Magistrate order, registered an FIR against the sisters for offences punishable under sections 153A (promoting enmity between different religious groups), 295A (maliciously outraging religious feelings), 124A (sedition) read with 34 (conspiracy) of Indian Penal Code.
The plea filed on Monday through Advocate Rizwan Siddiquee prays for quashing of the FIR registered by the police and setting aside of the Magistrate order.
A request was also moved for urgent hearing since the petitioners have sought an order from the court to protect them from any coercive steps by the police and also prayed for a stay on the investigation.
The order passed by the Magistrate has been assailed on the ground that Sayyed failed to observe the process laid down under provisions of the Code of Criminal Procedure.
The plea states that the Magistrate failed to apply his mind when a common order was passed for complaints against two separate individuals.
It alleges that the Magistrate did not check the content of the complaint which was “absolutely vague and with no proper references”.
The plea further points out that the order failed to justify how the tweets disclosed any of the offences alleged in the complaint filed with the Magistrate.
“Merely inciting the feelings of one community or group without reference to any other community or group cannot attract the provisions of Section 153A of IPC...Citizen has a right to say or write whatever he likes about the Government by way of criticism or comments so long as it does not incite people to resort to violence. The impugned tweets merely seeks to voice the opinion and the view of the author. It is surely not a call for arms," the plea states.
The petitioners have also highlighted the zero conviction rate in sedition cases from 2016 to 2018 placing reliance on the records of the National Crime Records Bureau.
"The conviction rate is zero, making it abundantly clear that the cases are filed with mischievous intent just to cause harassment of the person,” the plea states.
The plea will be heard by a Bench of Justices SS Shinde and MS Karnik at 3 pm today. .