Shiv Sena’s Pratap Sarnaik moves breach of privilege motion over Kangana Ranaut’s tweet

Quoting Ranaut’s tweet, he moved the motion against media outlets for allegedly publishing false stories regarding him.

Shiv Sena legislator Pratap Sarnaik on Monday moved a breach of privilege motion over a tweet by actor Kangana Ranaut which was carried by several news outlets. In a letter submitted to the principal secretary of the state legislature, Sarnaik sought breach of privilege motion against the print, electronic and social media for allegedly publishing false stories based on Ranaut’s tweet. While Sarnaik has named Ranaut and quoted her tweet, the legislator has not named any media outlet in his letter.

Pratap Sarnaik has moved the motion against print and electronic media for allegedly publishing false stories based on Ranaut’s tweet. (HT Photo)

The Sena legislator, in the letter, said that electronic media and print media outlets ran unverified news stating that a Pakistani credit card was allegedly found at his place by Enforcement Directorate (ED) during their searches, leading to defamation of his family. He requested the principal secretary of the state legislature to forward his notice to the Privilege Committee of Maharashtra Assembly so that an inquiry can be initiated.

Sarnaik, in his notice, said ED conducted two raids at his residence and found nothing suspicious during the raids. “ED called me and my son for inquiry and we are cooperating with ED and there is no issue... But after Kangana’s tweet, some electronic media and print media published news on December 12 and 13 against me that were defaming and baseless as ED has officially said nothing about seizures in their raids,” Sarnaik said.

“This is absolutely baseless and incorrect. It has been defamatory and therefore request you to forward the notice to the privilege committee of the state assembly for further action,” Sarnaik said in the notice. Later speaking to reporters outside Vidhan Bhavan, Sarnaik said, “I have submitted the motion today. I am of the firm opinion that such news reports are only meant to defame me. I have filed a breach of privilege motion against Ranaut for publishing false stories, including ‘Pakistani credit card was found at Pratap Sarnaik’s home’, ‘Rafael [fighter jet] documents were found’, ‘documents of partnership with Donald Trump were found’, etc. to defame me and my family.”

In the monsoon session of the legislature held in September, Sarnaik had moved a privilege motion against Republic TV’s editor-in chief Arnab Goswami, stating that the news anchor referred to chief minister Uddhav Thackeray in a disrespectful manner and presented news with malafide intent.