In a breaking development, the Thane court, on Thursday, granted bail to Marathi actor Ketaki Chitale in a case registered against her under Atrocities Act.
The actor has been granted bail on a surety amount of Rs 25,000. However, she will remain in jail as she is accused in another case in which the bail hearing is on June 21.
2020 Atrocities case
A case was registered against Chitale on March 3, 2020 with the Rabale police based on a complaint filed by a final-year law student then for allegedly posting derogatory comments on Buddhism. The police arrested the actor under the Scheduled Caste and Scheduled Tribe (Prevention of Atrocities) Act.
As per the complaint, Chitale had given six points with comments on various religions, including Muslims, Parsis, Jains, Christians, and Buddhists.
Sharad Pawar defamation row
Chitale was arrested by the Thane police on May 14 for sharing a post on Facebook that alluded to and allegedly contained defamatory comments against Pawar The actor in her plea said that her arrest was not in accordance with the law and hence, must be declared illegal by the high court.
Chitale's plea, which is filed through advocate Yogesh Deshpande, stated that the police should have given her a notice under section 41A of the Criminal Procedure Code (CrPC) and allowed her to appear before a police officer.
The film and TV actor has claimed that she had merely shared a poem penned by someone else and that the said post did not name the NCP chief.
The plea is likely to be mentioned before the high court on Friday for an urgent hearing.
The 29-year-old actor is currently facing over 20 FIRs based on the said Facebook post. She had earlier approached the high court seeking a stay on the investigation in these cases. The hearing on her previous plea is pending in the court.
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