Ketaki Chitale, a 29-year old Marathi actress has been arrested after a complaint was filed against her for an alleged derogatory post on social media against Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) chief Sharad Pawar. The post in question shared by Ketaki Chitale on her Facebook profile was initially posted by someone else entirely. It also only mentions the surname Pawar and the person’s age as 80, whereas the actual age of Sharad Pawar is 81. However, it does make some unsavoury remarks against his ailment and take a dig at supposed caste-based politics. Another individual, 21-year-old student Nikhil Bhamrea resident of Nashik and former Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) worker, was also arrested for sharing the post.
Nikhil Bhamre, too, didn’t directly mention Sharad Pawar’s name while sharing the initial post on Twitter, but instead captioned it: “Time has come for Baramati’s Gandhi……to create Nathuram Godse of Baramati.” For the uninitiated, Baramati town is located in Pune city in Maharashtra, which also happen to be Pawar’s home turf. Coming back to Ketaki Chitale, the actress was arrested from Navi Mumbai by the crime branch from the Thane police cell, where one of the many complaints against her were lodged by the NCP workers and party supporters.
Among other things, the post mentioned that “hell is waiting”, “you hate Brahmins” and that Sharad Pawar is suffering from cancer because of corruption. It received 7400 likes and was shared by 585 people within 24 hours. Condemning Ketaki’s action, Maharashtra Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray, with whose Shiv Sena party, the NCP chief shares power in Maharashtra, said at a rally, “Who are you to criticize the NCP chief ?…Why are you commenting ? She seems to be someone from the fake Hindutva camp.”
In an official statement, MNS chief Raj Thackeray remonstrated the actress, stating, “We have differences with them (Pawar) and those will be there. But it is quite wrong to come to such a hideous level. It needs to be told quite clearly that this is not Maharashtra’s culture. To write something like this is not a tendency, but wickedness. It needs to be checked in time.”
“The offense against Chitale was registered at Kalwa police station in Thane on Saturday based on a complaint lodged by Swapnil Netke,” a police official told the media in a statement. Ketaki Chitale has been remanded to police custody till 18th May. While being escorted in a police van, a mob of NCP workers tried manhandling her and attempted to throw ink and egg on her face, with some of it landing on her clothes.
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