Mumbai: The Supreme Court has refused to club together cases registered against Bollywood actress Kangana Ranaut in Mumbai's Khar Police Station, stating that the petitioner had legal recourse but should preferably ignore her as he was giving too much publicity to offensive statements
"The more you publicize, the more you cause damage to yourself. You are serving her cause by publicizing her statements….One way to deal with it is to ignore, that we are not advising you. You have a remedy under law," the bench told petitioner, identified as Mumbai-based lawyer Sardar Charanjit Singh Chanderpal.
The court also refused a PIL seeking censorship of the actresses posts on social media but did allow the Mumbai Police to continue its probe.
Chanderpal expressed his grievance over offensive statements made by the actress on social media, including equating farmers protesting against the controversial farm laws with "Khalistanis" and called her comments "outrageous and blasphemous".
"How can a person go on and on ranting against a community. Can a person be permitted to be so reckless that she says that we should adopt Indira Gandhi (former Prime Minister) as our guru as she crushed us like mosquitoes," Charanjit was quoted as saying by Hindustan Times.
The petitioner, who appeared in person, told the court that he has already instituted a complaint against the actor in a lower court and filed an application to oppose her petition in the Bombay high court for quashing one of the cases lodged against her.
Several prominent members of the Sikh community had registered cases against the actress for her remarks which can be punishable under Section 295A of the Indian Penal Code. This includes Jaspal Singh Siddhu, the president of the Supreme Council Navi Mumbai Gurudwara, Singh Sirsa, the president of Delhi Gurdwara Management Committee as well as Amarjeet Singh Sandhu of Dadar's Shri Guru Singh Sabha Gurudwara.