On Tuesday, 2 March, the Karnataka High Court refused to stay proceedings against actor Kangana Ranaut in connection to her tweets regarding the farmers' protests, as per a report by Live Law. A complaint was filed against Ranaut accusing her of ‘insulting’ farmers and calling them ‘terrorists’. The complainant is an advocate, Harshvardhan Patil.
The Live Law report also states that advocate Rizwan Siddiquee, appearing for Ranaut, sought for a stay on the proceedings. To this, the court said, “First you comply with the office objection then only we can consider your submissions.” The matter has been posted for further hearing on 18 March.
Harshvardhan Patil had accused Kangana of criminal intimidation and “intentionally insulting” farming communities “with an intent to provoke breach of peace” and making statements conducive to public mischief, as per a report by The News Minute.
The complaint filed on 6 February, is in reference to a tweet posted by Kangana after she reacted to singer Rihanna sharing an article on the farmers’ protest. Rihanna had shared she questioned why we weren’t talking about the internet shutdown in Delhi’s border areas where farmers have been protesting against the contentious three farm laws. Kangana responded to Rihanna in a bizarre tweet, saying “no one is talking about it because they are not farmers they are terrorists who are trying to divide India, so that China can take over our vulnerable broken nation and make it a Chinese colony much like USA…”
Patil had asked for Kangana to be charged with various sections and called for the police to take action to suspend her Twitter account.
(With inputs from Live Law and The News Minute)
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