The Bombay police yesterday (December 13) assured the Bombay high court that it would not take coercive action, including arrest, against Kangana Ranaut till January 25 next year, in the FIR filed against her over her social media posts that compared the protesting farmers with Khalistanis. The statement was made to a bench of Justices Nitin Jamdar and Sarang Kotwal on a petition by the actress to quash the November 23, 2021 FIR under section 295A of the IPC by the Khar (Bombay) police on a complaint by a Sikh body that she had hurt the religious sentiments of the community with her November 21 Instagram post.
Kangana’s advocate argued that to invoke the provisions of section 295A, the offensive comment must be made with deliberate and malicious intent of hurting a particular person or community’s religious feelings, and added that Kangana had no such intention. The judges seemed to agree with Kangana’s advocate . Justice Jamdar remarked, “It has to be the sole and dominant object to hurt religious beliefs.”
On a question to the state if it intended to arrest Kangana, chief public prosecutor Aruna Pai said that the Khar police had issued the actress a notice to appear for questioning but she had not responded to it. It was stated that Kangana was not cooperating. Kangana’s advocate said that the actress feared that she would be arrested. At this, the judges sought a categorical statement whether the police intended to arrest her.
Justice Nitin Jamdar also said, “Freedom of speech should not be affected, that would have a chilling effect… There is also the larger question of protection of speech here. Unless the police make a statement of not arresting her (Kangana Ranaut), we’ll have to grant some relief.”
Kangana’s advocate told the court that the actress would appear before the Khar police on December 22. The public prosecutor said, “The police will not arrest her until the next date of hearing.” The matter was posted for further hearing on January 25, 2022.