Kamaal R Khan was on Monday night detained at the Mumbai airport on his return from Dubai. (File Photo)Actor Kamaal R Khan who was arrested late on Monday night will have to spend the weekend in jail as his bail plea will come up for hearing next Monday (September 5). Also known as KRK, the actor was arrested by the police in Mumbai’s Malad for allegedly posting derogatory tweets in 2020 in connection with the movie ‘Laxmii’ starring Akshay Kumar
“His bail plea was kept for hearing on September 2, but due to a court holiday on Friday his hearing has been kept on Monday,” his lawyer Ashok Saraogi informed on Friday. KRK is also wanted in another FIR registered by the Bandra police for derogatory tweets on actors Rishi Kapoor and Irrfan Khan, and they may seek his custody.
Khan, 52, whose real name is Mohammed Rashid Mohammed Iqbal Kamal, was on Monday night detained at the Mumbai airport on his return from Dubai. He was later arrested and produced on Tuesday before a local court in Borivali, which remanded him in judicial custody for 14 days.
According to the police, a lookout circular was issued in the case against Khan on October 24, 2020, following the registration of an FIR at Malad police station in the same month. The arrest is based on a complaint filed by Rahul Kanal of the Shiv Sena’s youth wing in October 2020. Khan has been booked under IPC sections 500 and 501 (defamation), 505 (public mischief), 294 (obscenity in public) and 153A (promoting enmity between two groups), and under section 67A (transmitting obscene content in electronic form) of the IT Act.
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The complainant Kanal, said, “Kamaal Khan makes derogatory comments on social media and uses foul language. Such kind of behaviour is unacceptable in society. By arresting him, the Mumbai police have sent out a strong message against such people, and no one will repeat this in future with any citizen.”
Police sources said Khan, who owns a house in Dubai, left India for the UAE in March 2020 for work. Other than earning revenue from social media, he is also engaged in business related to garments and other work linked to the film industry, such as providing equipment for shoots.
Sources said Khan returned to Mumbai for work commitments and is undergoing treatment for a heart ailment. On Tuesday, after being sent to judicial custody, he complained of illness and was taken to Shatabdi Hospital. He was later taken to the Malad police station and then lodged at Thane jail.
Khan has acted in few films and his debut film ‘Deshdrohi’, which was released in 2008, was a box office flop. He has also participated in the reality TV show Bigg Boss. He is now a self-styled film critic with 5.1 million followers on Twitter and 1 million on YouTube.
Kanal had lodged another complaint against Khan for his social media posts following which a separate FIR was registered at Bandra police station in May 2020. The complaint stated that Khan had allegedly posted derogatory comments on actor Rishi Kapoor (since deceased), who was undergoing treatment at the time. Similarly, the complaint stated that Khan had allegedly posted abusive tweets against the late actor Irrfan Khan while he was in hospital.
Apart from the two police cases, a defamation case was filed against KRK by film actor Salman Khan and a restraining order was passed against him by a local court asking him not to publish any derogatory comment against the star.
Khan has also posted tweets targeting producer Karan Johar, and actors Anushka Sharma and Alia Bhatt, among others. Recently, he posted numerous tweets on the ongoing Asia Cup cricket tournament in the UAE, including one mocking ex-cricketer and commentator Sanjay Manjrekar for praising BCCI secretary Jay Shah.