HC to hear plea for Kangana's Twitter a/c suspension on Mar 9

The Bombay High Court on Tuesdaysaid it would hear a plea seeking either suspension ortermination of the Twitter account of Kangana Ranaut on March9 though the petitioner sought an urgent hearing claiming theactor recently posted a tweet calling the protesting farmersas ''terrorists''.

The petitioner Ali Kashif Khan Deshmukh, who is anadvocate, on Tuesday moved an application before a divisionbench of Justices S S Shinde and Manish Pitale seeking urgenthearing on his petition, filed in December last year, seekingtermination of Ranaut's Twitter account.

In his application, Deshmukh cited certain tweetsposted by Ranaut on Twitter in which she allegedly called thefarmers, who are protesting at Delhi's borders against thethree new farm laws, as ''terrorists''.

The bench said it would be able to hear the plea onlyon March 9.

In his petition, Deshmukh had claimed that Ranaut'sposts on Twitter were spreading hatred among differentreligious communities.

The Maharashtra government had, however, opposed theplea, saying it was vague.

Last week, Twitter India had removed two of the tweetsby Ranaut, citing a violation of the platform's rules.

The actor has been criticising protesting farmers overtheir agitations against the Centre's three farm laws.

Ranaut has been actively posting on Twitter since lastTuesday when international pop star Rihanna came out insupport of the farmers' agitations.

On February 5, a magistrate's court in Mumbai directedthe police to submit a progress report on the inquiry it hadordered into a complaint filed by Deshmukh against Ranaut andher sister for posting alleged hateful messages on socialmedia.