Lawyer approaches Mumbai Court to reopen complaint against Kangana Ranaut for hateful tweets

A lawyer has approached a Mumbai Sessions Court seeking revision of the order dismissing a complaint lodged against actress Kangana Ranaut and her sister Rangoli Chandel pertaining to their tweets against Muslims from the Tablighi Jamaat sect..The matter was listed before Additional Sessions Judge SU Baghele, who was not presiding today. It is now listed for hearing on December 21, 2021..The complaint filed by Advocate Ali Kaashif Khan Deshmukh sought issuance of summons to Ranaut and her sister Rangoli Chandel for allegedly committing offences under Sections 121, 121A (attempting to wage war against the Government), 124 (sedition), 153A, 153B, 195A, 298 and 505 (related to spreading enmity and hatred amongst different religious groups) of the Indian Penal Code..The dismissed criminal complaint alleged that the sisters had been spreading communal hatred through their offensive statements and illicit videos against the Muslim community..The Metropolitan Magistrate at Andheri ordered Andheri Police Station to conduct an investigation against the sisters. However in July 2021, the complaint came to be dismissed on the ground of absence of sanction from the Central government or the District Magistrate. .This order came to challenged by Deshmukh in his revision application on the following grounds:The Magistrate could have kept the complaint for compliance while the procedure of getting sanction is ongoing instead of directly dismissing the complaint. Since the complaint was at pre-cognisance stage, the Magistrate could not have dismissed the complaint on the ground of non-availability of sanction under Section 196 of Code of Criminal Procedure. For saving time of judiciary, police machinery and avoid same procedures as is already done, the revision is preferred instead of second complaint. There is prima facie explicit and incriminating evidence on record and hence the police also filed its report, while the sisters have "not bothered to co-operate with the investigation".That application for grant of sanction under Section 196 has been made to the District Magistrate and is pending.