Thane: Ketaki Chitale granted bail in 2020 atrocities case; to remain in jail in 'objectionable post' case

Thane: On Thursday, the Thane court gave relief to Marathi actress Ketaki Chitale by giving her bail in the Atrocities Act case of 2020 which was registered at Rabale police station. However, even after getting the bail, the actress will remain in judicial custody in another case registered against her in Kalwa regarding posting a derogatory post about Nationalist Congress Party chief Sharad Pawar on social media. The hearing in the Kalwa case is on 21st June.

Her lawyer Yogesh Deshpande told the media, "Additional Sessions Judge A S Bhagwat granted her bail in the Atrocities Act case on a surety of Rs 25,000.

Earlier Rabale police in Navi Mumbai had registered a case against Chitale on March 3, 2020, based on a complaint by Swapnil Jagtap a member of the Ambedkar Yuva Sangh regarding the actress's derogatory post against Dr Babasaheb Ambedkar and other known personalities.

On May 14, 2022, the actress was arrested by Thane police for sharing derogatory posts about NCP supremo Sharad Pawar on Facebook.

Chitale on Thursday challenged her arrest in Sharad Pawar post connection before the Bombay High Court.

The actress filed a plea through her Advocate Deshpande who said that the Thane 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. Section 41A of the CrPC mandated that in cases where the arrest is not immediately necessary the police shall first issue a notice to the person to join the probe.

Ketaki Chitale alleged that instead of sending her a notice, the Thane police telephoned her and asked her to report to the police station where she was arrested. She further claimed that she has merely shared a poem penned by someone else and it did not name the NCP chief.

The actress is currently facing over 20 FIRs in various parts of Maharashtra over her Facebook post allegedly referring to Pawar.

Meanwhile, the National Commission for Women has tweeted, "@NCWIndia has sent a notice to @DGPMaharashtra to appear in person before the Commission for a hearing on 17th June at 2:30 pm in a case wherein Marathi actor Ketaki Chitale was arrested for allegedly sharing a post against NCP Chief Sharad Pawar on social media. @ Sharmarekha