Thane court grants bail to Ketaki Chitale in 2020 Atrocities Act case, but she will remain in jail

In March 2020, Chitale had made a post commenting on Muslims, Parsis, Jains, Christians and Buddhists. She had mentioned that on December 6 every year, Buddhists travel for free to Mumbai, after which a case was filed against her by the Rabale Police under the Atrocities Act. Swapnil Jagtap, a member of the Ambedkar Yuva Sangh, had filed a complaint pertaining to Chitale’s Facebook post.

On Thursday, Additional Sessions Judge A S Bhagwat granted bail to Chitale in this case with a condition to furnish surety of Rs 25, 000.

However, Chitale will not be released from jail immediately as she has been lodged in judicial custody in another case over a social media post referring to 81-year-old NCP chief Sharad Pawar. The bail hearing in the latter case is scheduled on June 21.

Meanwhile, Chitale, 29, who was arrested last month for the social media post against Pawar, filed another petition in the Bombay High Court Thursday claiming her arrest by the Thane police was “illegal.”

Chitale has already approached the Bombay High Court seeking quashing of more than 20 FIRs against her. The High Court is likely to hear the pleas on Friday.

Chitale, in her latest plea filed through advocates Ghanshyam Upadhyay and Yogesh Deshpande, also said that even the police remand given by the magistrate court was in breach of Supreme Court guidelines. She added that the police should have given her notice under Section 41A of the Criminal Procedure Code (CrPC), which mandates that the investigating officer would have to issue a notice of appearance before an arrest is made.

In the current plea, she claimed that the enthusiasm shown by the police in registering the FIRs proved that she was being targeted with an object of striking fear in minds of people and an “invisible hand” is targeting her. Chitale’s plea claimed that the FIR was an “abuse of process of law” and sought it to be quashed and set aside. The pleas sought from the court to direct her arrest as “illegal and violative of her fundamental rights.” Chitale has also sought that she be compensated for “unlawful” arrest.

Chitale said that the day after the FIR was registered, she was called by officials of the Kalamboli Police station in Thane asking her to appear, which she had complied with. She said the officials of the Kalwa Police station, who were present there, took her into custody. She added that the Kalwa police never gave her the notice to come to the police station and came to the Kalamboli police station with the intention to arrest her even before they had interacted with her.

She further claimed that a mob of goons led by an NCP leader attacked, assaulted and outraged her modesty near the police station. “The gathering of a huge mob outside the police station and the inaction of the police to register offence against assailants establishes that the Kalwa Police and Kalamboli Police were in collusion with the assailants and the tip of the presence of petitioner was also provided by some insider in the police department.”

Chitale had posted a Marathi poem on her Facebook profile, attributed to another person, that mentioned only a surname (Pawar) and an age. But it also refers to the physical ailments the 81-year-old NCP leader suffers from.