Last week, Marathi actress Ketaki Chitale walked out of the Thane Central Jail after spending over a month in custody for a social media post. Now, Chitale has got further relief in the remaining 21 FIRs lodged against her for allegedly posting derogatory remarks against Nationalist Congress Party supremo Sharad Pawar. The Bombay High Court ruled that police should not take any coercive action against her.
According to the reports, there were 22 FIRs filed against the actress from various parts of Maharashtra. Ketaki Chitale, who was arrested on May 15 for sharing an allegedly derogatory post on Facebook against Sharad Pawar was granted bail in one of the cases on June 16. Following that, on 23rd June, Chitale walked out of jail after having spent nearly 40 days in custody.
Marathi actress Ketaki Chitale has been granted interim relief in 21 pending FIRs registered against her by Maharashtra Police over her post against NCP chief Sharad Pawar. The High Court instructed the police not to take any coercive action against her.
— ANI (@ANI) June 27, 2022
(File photo) pic.twitter.com/2m2fyfC2Jr
The Court on June 22 released her on a Rs 20,000 bond and slammed the State Police for not following proper procedure while arresting Chitale. Reports mention that Chitale was not sent a pre-arrest notice under Section 41A of the Code of Criminal Procedure which is mandatory. Further, the state police had applied section 66A of the IT Act which the Supreme Court has already scrapped.
The Court pulled up the police for violating norms and stated that severe action should be initiated against the investigating officer for not following the rules. Pertinently, on Monday, the Maharashtra Government told the Bombay High Court that it won’t arrest the Marathi actress under these 21 FIRs.
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 2 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.
Ketaki Chitale 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.
The Police are meanwhile tracing Advocate Nitin Bhave who had originally written the poem shared by Chitale on her Facebook wall. During the investigation, though Chitale stated that she didn’t know who Bhave was, the Police confiscated her gadgets including the laptop and phone to find any evidence related to Bhave. The authorities are investigating the case to find clues about Bhave. “Our cyber team is working on it and when we submit our charge sheet in the case, we will mention it”, the crime branch officer from Thane had said.
