MUMBAI: Marathi actor Ketaki Chitale, arrested last month for sharing an allegedly objectionable social media post about NCP chief Sharad Pawar, in a petition filed in Bombay high court has said she was being targeted by "an unseen hand" to deprive her of her fundamental right to personal liberty.
Chitale filed the petition on Monday to quash the FIR lodged by Kalwa police on May 14 against her and as interim relief sought for her release on bail and a stay on the probe. The actor has been booked under various IPC sections for defamation and promoting enmity between different groups on grounds of religion and race. She is at present in judicial custody.
Chitale said the "the very fact" that the post - a poem - "resulted not only in a number of police complaints across Maharashtra, but in many cases, police enthusiastically registered FIRs and are likely to seek police custody gives rise to a serious apprehension that there is an invisible hand that is targeting the petitioner and there is a concerted effort to strike fear in minds of people of Maharashtra in general and the petitioner in particular".
Her plea, filed through Yashas Legal, said the FIR against her was an "abuse of the process of law". Her petition said she deserves compensation for her "illegal arrest". She also sought a report from the state director general of police (DGP) on several FIRs registered based on the poem and directions to the DGP to advise all police stations to refrain from registering any further cases against her and to transfer any other FIR to Kalwa police station. Her petition said, "...in the extraordinary circumstances...since multiple FIRs on same cause of action is a serious abuse of process of law, it would be just, fair and necessary to pass orders directing the DGP to issue guidelines to all police stations in Maharashtra to exercise caution while entertaining any complaint or register FIR on the basis of the very same poem that is subject matter of the FIR earlier registered with Kalwa police. It would also be just and fair to issue orders preventing arrest of the petitioner on the very same cause of action".
The petition has 38 respondents including the state, DGP, and police stations in Kalwa, Goregaon, Bhoiwada, Powai police, Khadan, Pimpri, Dehu Road, Kudal, Osmanabad, Ambejogai, Barhe, Sindkhed, Dhule, Parner, Gadge, Nerul and Kalamboli, as well as Pune city cyber police and Satara and Nashik city cyber cells. It said her advocates "could lay their hand on 14 FIRs" and that "some of the FIRs based on the poem" have not been uploaded on a website as mandated by an SC order, amounting to "contempt of court". The petition is likely to be heard on June 10.
