Sedition case: Mumbai Police again summons Kangana, sister

MUMBAI: The Mumbai Police has issued fresh summons to Bollywood actress Kangana Ranaut, her sister Rangoli Chandel and an aide to come for questioning in a case lodged against them on various charges, including sedition, officials said here on Wednesday.

In the summons issued late on Tuesday, Kangana has been directed to appear at the Bandra police station on November 23 and Rangoli on November 24, said Ravish Zamindar, lawyer for complainant Munawwarali Sahil A Sayyed.

Summons have also been issued to Kangana's aide Amruta Dutta for questioning in the same case on November 25, he added.

This is the third time summons have been issued to the two sisters after they remained absent on October 26-27 and later on November 9-10 regarding the probe into a first information report lodged against them, which includes sedition charges, he said.

To the reason for skipping the previous summons, their lawyer had sent a letter to Bandra police to seek postponement of their appearance as both sisters were busy with their brother's wedding earlier this month, according to Zamindar.

"Among the charges are those under Section 124-A (sedition) of the Indian Penal Code... besides spreading communal hatred and falsehoods. The police have already recorded the statement of Sayyed in this connection in October," Zamindar told IANS.

The sisters have been directed to come to Bandra police station, over a month after Bandra Metropolitan Magistrate JY Ghule took cognisance of Sayyed's complaint and ordered an FIR against them on October 17.

A Bollywood casting director and fitness trainer, Sayyed had accused Kangana and Rangoli of defaming the film industry, portraying the people working in it in a bad light with claims of nepotism, drug addiction, communal bias, and attempting to drive a wedge between artistes of different communities, calling them murderers, insulting religions etc on the social media and through public statements.

In his complaint, he also charged the Ranaut sisters with seeking to create a Hindu-Muslim divide through objectionable comments, citing Rangoli's "make the mullahs and secular media stand in line and shoot them down; the history may call us Nazis, who cares" remarks.