Karnataka High Court Issues Notice On Kangana Ranaut's Plea To Quash FIR Over Tweet On Farmers Protests

The Karnataka High Court on Friday issued notice to the state government on a petition filed by actor Kangana Ranaut seeking to quash a First Information Report registered against her over her tweets comparing farmers protesting against the farm laws to terrorists. During the hearing, the complainant in the case, Advocate Ramesh Naik L ,who is the respondent no 2 in the petition appeared before the court through video conference, and submitted that he has not been served with the petition or the IA. He sought directions from the court to the petitioners to serve him through email. A single bench of Justice H P Sandesh accordingly directed the petitioner to furnish the copies to the respondent no 2 and posted the matter for hearing next week. Before the hearing concluded Advocate Rizwan Siddiquee appearing for the petitioner submitted that "I have a good case on merits lordship. I'm just requesting for interim protection in the meantime, lordship 41-A notice is served on me." To which the bench said "Only five days I have given, you come on 25th ".Accordingly the matter was adjourned for further hearing on March 25. A Judicial Magistrate First Class (JMFC) at Tumkur, had on October 9, 2020 directed the jurisdictional Police Station (Kyathasandra) to register FIR against her. The complaint was filed by advocate Ramesh Naik L under Section 156(3) of the Code of Criminal Procedure alleging that Ranaut has posted a message from her Twitter account '@KanganaTeam' on 21st September 2020 saying: "People who spread misinformation and rumours about CAA that caused riots are the same people who are now spreading misinformation about Farmer's bill and causing terror in the nation, they are Terrorists. You very well know what I said but simply like to spread misinformation". The complaint alleged that the above content posted by the accused in her Twitter account has a clear intention to injure the people who are opposing the Farmers Bills. Further, it was alleged that the tweet may lead to a collision between different groups. It was submitted that neither the police official nor the government had initiated any action to curb/check these activities Suo-moto and failed to register any case against the above named accused. The complainant, therefore, sought registration of FIR for the offences under Sections 153A, 504, 108 of the Indian Penal Code against the actor

Karnataka High Court Issues Notice On Kangana Ranaut's Plea To Quash FIR Over Tweet On Farmers Protests

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