Mumbai lawyer files complaint to invoke sedition against Kangana Ranaut

Advocate Ali Kaashif Khan Deshmukh has pleaded the court to direct the police to book the actor under charges of sedition for her various posts on the micro-blogging site Twitter. The plea is scheduled for hearing next month.

A city-based lawyer on Thursday filed a private complaint with Andheri metropolitan magistrate court against actor Kangana Ranaut for allegedly “causing disharmony among two religious groups through her tweets”.

Bollywood actress Kangana Ranaut. (PTI)

Advocate Ali Kaashif Khan Deshmukh has pleaded the court to direct the police to book the actor under charges of sedition for her various posts on the micro-blogging site Twitter. The plea is scheduled for hearing next month.

The lawyer said that Ranaut’s recent tweet referred to Mumbai as “Pakistan occupied Kashmir” and described the state home minister as a member of the “Taliban”, which Deshmukh claimed have defamed the country.

“The actor has no respect for varied communities of India, law of the land, authorised government bodies,” read the complaint.

Deshmukh claimed that Ranaut had been attacking the state government and the Shiv Sena by addressing them as murderers of actor Sushant Singh Rajput.

“It is prominent to note that every Indian citizen has got the right to freedom of speech and not freedom of hate speech. We have all got limitations to use the right to freedom of speech and expression, yet several people including present accused [Ranaut] have been spreading hate, breaking brotherhood and integrity of the country through time and again provoking hate speeches that disrupt peace in the country,” the complaint mentioned.

The lawyer has also referred to the actor’s comments made on the social media site after the metropolitan magistrate court in Bandra ordered police to register a case against her and her sister. The complainant alleged that Ranaut addressed the judiciary as “Papu Sena” in her comments.

Ranaut and her sister have been facing a probe over their comments on social media regarding the government. The two have already been summoned by the Bandra police, which has registered a case against them on the direction of the court.