Sedition case:None of my tweets incited violence,Kangana to HC

Actor Kangana Ranaut on Mondaytold the Bombay High Court, through her lawyer, that none ofher tweets had ever incited violence or caused any criminalacts, and sought quashing of the FIR registered against herfor sedition by Mumbai Police.

The HC will continue hearing the arguments on February26 and the interim protection from arrest granted to Ranautand her sister Rangoli will continue till then.

Ranaut's counsel Rizwan Siddique told a bench ofJustices SS Shinde and Manish Pitale that the actor had notcommitted any wrong through her tweets.

He said the magistrate's court in suburban Bandra haderred in allowing registration of a First Information Report(FIR) against Ranaut on charges including sedition.

Siddique urged the High Court to quash the lowercourt's order as well as the FIR.

''There is absolute non-application of mind in the(Bandra) court's order. Even the sections invoked against medo not constitute any offence. None of my tweets have invokedany reactions from the public. They will not attract apunishment as they were not followed by violence. Whathappened after the tweet? Was there any criminal act after mytweets?'' Siddique told the HC on the behalf of Ranaut.

The actor and her sister Rangoli had challenged theorder of the magistrate's court to initiate criminalproceedings against them and the subsequent summons issued bythe Mumbai Police.

The FIR was registered against Ranaut and Rangoli inOctober last year on the directions of the magistrate's courtafter Munawwar Ali Sayyad, a casting director and fitnesstrainer, filed a complaint citing some tweets and statementsmade allegedly by Ranaut and her sister.

In an affidavit filed in the HC earlier this month,Sayyad had said that among other things, Ranaut and Rangolipromoted ''hatred and contempt, and incited disaffectiontowards the Maharashtra government,'' through their tweets.

He said in the affidavit that the magistrate's courtwas therefore, justified in directing the police to initiateproceedings and invoke the offence of sedition under Section124A of the Indian Penal Code against them.

In his complaint to the magistrate court, Sayyed hadalleged that Ranaut, through her tweets and televisioninterviews, had continuously defamed Hindi film industry byportraying Bollywood as a hub of nepotism, favouritism, drugaddicts, communally-biased people and murderers, etc.

He said Ranaut and Rangoli had also repeatedlypromoted enmity between communities through their remarks.

However, Ranaut's counsel Siddique on Monday deniedthese allegations.

He told the HC that the Bandra court had failed tofollow due procedure and didn't apply its mind in permittingthe police to initiate action against Ranaut and her sister.

Earlier last month, Sayyad had also filed anapplication seeking initiation of contempt proceedings againstRanaut for allegedly breaching a previous undertaking she hadgiven to the HC.

He said in his plea that on November 24, Ranaut hadgiven an undertaking that she will not make statementspertaining to the Mumbai Police's investigation into thesedition case filed against her.

However, on January 8, just before she went to thepolice station, Ranaut tweeted a video in which she spoke toher fans about the investigation, Sayyad had said.

The HC is hearing Ranaut's plea against the Bandracourt and Sayyad's contempt application together.