Marathi Actress Ketaki Chitale who was arrested for allegedly posting derogatory comments about NCP Supremo Sharad Pawar revealed on Tuesday that she was molested by the NCP workers while she was in the Police custody. Claiming that she did not speak about Sharad Pawar in the first place, she slammed the MVA government for misusing the power against her.
“I did not speak about Sharad Pawar. I was unlawfully picked up from my house without any prior notice, without any statement. I was molested by the NCP workers during the police custody”, she said in an exclusive interview with Times Now.
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I was unlawfully picked up from my house without any prior notice, without any statement. I was molested during police custody by NCP workers: Ketaki Chitale, Actor@thenewshour AGENDA @PadmajaJoshi pic.twitter.com/JGklSFZUgg
She stated that there was no claim regarding Sharad Pawar in the entire post that she had shared on social media. “It is the NCP workers who interpreted that the post was about Sharad Pawar and filed more than 20 cases against me”, the actress said adding that the wrong interpretation by the NCP workers about the post was enough to showcase their ‘trust’ in NCP supremo’s leadership. “Are NCP workers trying to say that whatever the poem was written accordingly, whoever this Pawar was, is the same as Mr Sharad Pawar is? Are they agreeing that Sharad Pawar is like that”, she questioned the NCP workers.
Ketaki Chitale further narrated the incident that occurred on the day she was arrested. She said that the NCP female workers threw black toxic chemicals at her in the name of black ink. “They molested me in the public. I was wearing a saree that day. They didn’t pull my clothes, they molested me. My saree pallu was forcefully pulled and they were hitting me from everywhere”, she said.
Adding to her ordeal, she said that when she complained against the NCP workers, the Police refused to do so. “No complaint was filed by the Police against the NCP workers. They were set free. The people who molested me were not low-level NCP workers, one of them has plans to contest the upcoming elections. They all are in good positions. They also had hit the Police inside the Police station which is unlawful”, she added.
The actress, meanwhile, slammed the opposition leaders like Rahul Gandhi, Mamata Banerjee, Mahua Moitra, Jairam Ramesh, Shashi Tharoor, Owaisi, Derek O’Brien, organizations like Amnesty India, Digipub, and a few journalists like Rana Ayub, Arfa Khanum Sherwani, etc for selectively raising their voices. She referred to the recent arrest of Mohammed Zubair, the co-founder of leftist propagandist portal Alt News and said that the opposition leaders and journalists had spoken up against Zubair’s arrest but opted to remain silent when she was arrested. “Zubair is a hero and I am not. Is this justice?” the actress pondered.
She also slammed arrested Zubair for running the Altnews as an NGO. “Altnews is registered under section 8 of the Companies Act. It is an NGO. Where does it get funds from? How are they used? How can exposing fake news be a social service”, she said. She also added that Zubair must face the same consequences as faced by her or Nupur Sharma. “Either everyone should be free or everyone must face the same consequences”, she said.
The 29-year-old actress was arrested on May 15 for a Facebook post where she had shared a verse, allegedly written on Pawar, calling him a person who hates Brahmins. Soon after the post was shared, the actress got several cases registered against her under charges of defamation and promoting enmity between two groups. A case under the SC-ST Act had also been filed against her. The cases were filed in multiple police stations in Mumbai and its suburbs.
She was granted relief in the FIRs lodged against her on June 28 when the Bombay High Court ruled that police should not take any coercive action against her. She was charged under sections 500 (defamation), 501 (printing or engraving matter known to be defamatory), 505 (2) (making, publishing, or circulating any statement, rumour, or report promoting enmity, hatred, or ill will between classes), 153 A (spreading disharmony among people), of the Indian Penal Code. The complaints noted that the post was likely to cause conflict between political parties.
