Mumbai:Mumbai Police on Wednesday issued notices to Bollywood actor Kangana Ranaut and her sister Rangoli Chandel, asking them to appear before cops next week to record their statements in connection with a case filed against them for allegedly promoting enmity between communities through their remarks, an official said.

The Bandra Metropolitan Magistrate's court had on Saturday ordered the police to investigate a complaint filed by Munawwar Ali Sayyed, a Bollywood casting director and fitness trainer, which referred to Ranaut's and her sister's tweets and other statements.

On the directions of the court, Bandra Police had registered a First Information Report against Ranaut and her sister under IPC sections 153A (promoting enmity between different groups on grounds of religion, race, etc), 295A (deliberate acts hurting religious sentiments) and 124-A (sedition), 34 (common intention), the police official said.

"We have issued notices to Ranaut and her sister, asking them to appear before the police in connection with the FIR registered against them. They have been asked to remain present on Monday and Tuesday," he said.

In the complaint submitted before the court, Sayyed had alleged that Ranaut has been defaming Bollywood for the last two months by calling it a "hub of nepotism", "favouritism", etc, through her tweets and television interviews.

She also tweeted "very objectionable" comments, which not only hurt his religious sentiments, but also the feelings of many artists and she was trying to divide artists on communal lines, the complainant had alleged.

 

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Ahmedabad, Apr 25: The Gujarat Congress on Friday suspended from the party for six years its Surat Lok Sabha candidate Nilesh Kumbhani, whose nomination form was rejected over discrepancies leading to the BJP's Mukesh Dalal getting elected unopposed.

A statement from the Congress said the party's disciplinary committee decided to suspend Kumbhani after thorough discussion, adding it had come to the conclusion that the nomination form was rejected due to gross negligence on his part or "in connivance with the BJP".

"To be fair to you we have given time to you to explain your case but instead of coming before the party disciplinary committee you have gone incommunicado. After your form was rejected by the authorities, BJP went ahead and got form of other eight candidates withdrawn. This has deprived people of Surat their voting rights," the Congress disciplinary committee headed by Balu Patel said.

"People of Surat and party workers have become very angry due to your action and are expressing their anger in different ways. The Congress party has decided to suspend you for six years from the party," the press note said.

Kumbhani's nomination form was rejected on April 21 after his three proposers submitted affidavits to the district returning officer claiming the signatures on the document was not theirs.

The nomination form of Suresh Padsala, the Congress' substitute candidate from Surat, was also invalidated on the same grounds.

In his order, Returning Officer Sourabh Pardhi said the three nomination forms submitted by Kumbhani and Padsala were rejected after prima facie discrepancy was found in the signatures of the proposers and they did not appear to be genuine.

Kumbhani, a former corporator from Surat, had unsuccessfully fought the 2022 Assembly polls from Kamrej there.

The Bharatiya Janata Party's Mukesh Dalal was elected unopposed from Surat Lok Sabha constituency on April 22 after all other nominees, including one from BSP, withdrew from the fray one by one on the last day of withdrawing papers.