An official of the Rojgar Aghari Republican Party of India filed a fresh complaint against actress-entrepreneur, Shilpa Shetty and superstar, Salman Khan for using the word bhangi on a public platform and hurting the sentiments of the Scheduled Caste community yesterday (25 December). They plan to protest against the two celebrities if the police does not take due action.
Kishor Kumar Masoom, the Vice President of the Rojgar Aghari Republican Party of India, told IANS that a new complaint was filed at Goregaon police station. The party had earlier lodged a complaint against the actors on 23 December at Andheri police station.
However, since no action was taken by the police, Masoom told IANS, "I know that Shilpa Shetty said sorry for her actions on Twitter but that does not change the reality. And according to the law, they should be imprisoned for five years.
So we are saying that if the police and law system do not take action against Salman and Shilpa within 48 hours, we, the Dalit Samaj across the country will protest and in a democratic way and will urge the authority to protect the law by punishing them for their wrong deeds."
A statement released by Masoom's lawyer read:
"Salman, along with Katrina Kaif on a TV show used the insulting word - bhangi against a member of the scheduled caste.
Actor Shilpa Shetty stated in an interview 'I look like a bhangi' - it appears from her statement that she is encouraging and spreading ill-feeling among the entire society. He also intentionally insulted members of the Scheduled Caste. Both actors have committed offence under sections of the Scheduled Castes and the Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Amendment Act, 2015, and Protection of Civil Rights Act, 1955.
After the first complaint was lodged, Shilpa had tweeted:
Some of my words from an interview in the past have been misinterpreted. It was never said with the intent of hurting anyone's feelings... I apologize if they have. I'm proud to belong to a country that boasts of diverse castes and creeds and I respect each one of them."
(Source: IANS)
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