Don't act on basis of 'political vendetta': NCW to police on Marathi actor Ketaki Chitale's arrest

Ketaki Chitale. Pic/Official Facebook account

The National Commission for Women held a meeting on June 17 over the arrest of Marathi actor Ketaki Chitale. Ketaki was arrested for allegedly sharing a derogatory post on Facebook against Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) chief Sharad Pawar. NCW said that the police should not act "political vendetta".

Milind Bharambe, Special IG (law and order), appeared before the NCW on behalf of the Director-General of Police, Maharashtra and NCW Chairperson Rekha Sharma chaired the hearing.

During the hearing, the Commission sought an explanation from Bharambe on different points including, why the provision of defamation was invoked in the FIR and who was the complainant, why action was taken only against Ketki despite the post being shared by multiple people previously, and whether legal procedure as enumerated in section 41A of Code of Criminal Procedure (CrPC) was followed before arresting her.

The NCW also sought an explanation on what action was taken by the police against the female NCP leaders who attacked Ketaki outside a police station. The Commission also wanted to know why section 66A, already struck down by the Supreme Court, was invoked in this particular matter.

"As per Section 41 A of CrPC, police is supposed to give notice to the accused before arrest and prior permission is to be taken from the Magistrate in non-cognizable cases. However, the police failed to comply with this mandatory provision of law," the NCW said in a statement.

The commission also observed that in non-cognizable cases, police cannot arrest without a warrant but in this case, no warrant was issued. It directed that the police should not act on the basis of political vendetta but should rather proceed in an unbiased manner in every matter.

The commission has also sought the list of cases which were registered during the last one year on the basis of online defamatory statements along with their status reports.

"Copies of some of the cases which have been brought to the notice of the Commission have also been shared with the Spl. IG (L&O) during the hearing and the status report on all those matters has been sought within 15 days," it said.

The matter has been adjourned until the next course of action, the statement added. Meanwhile, Ketaki got bail in the Atrocities Act case on June 16.

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With inputs from ANI