Actress challenges police to prove ‘false’ charge
As the stage is set for actress Kangana Ranaut’s return to Mumbai on Wednesday, the Shiv Sena-run BMC on Tuesday slapped a notice against her for illegal constructions undertaken at her Bandra office, the Maharashtra Government ordered a probe into alleged consumption of drugs by her and a Sena corporator lodged a complaint with the Thane police against her for her controversial statement comparing Mumbai with Pak-Occupied Kashmir (POK).
Kangana challenged, “I am more than happy to oblige @MumbaiPolice@AnilDeshmukhNCP please do my drug tests, investigate my call records if you find any links to drug peddlers ever I will accept my mistake and leave Mumbai forever, looking forward to meet you.”
Kangana — who has come under fire from various quarters for controversial statements comparing Mumbai to “Pak-Occupied Kashmir” and saying “it seems Mumbai is addicted to blood” and dubbing Bollywood as an “Islam-dominated” film industry —will have her plate when she arrives in Mumbai on Wednesday from Himachal Pradesh where she was away during the lockdown.
Ahead of the actress’ arrival in the city, Maharashtra’s State capital and neighbouring Thane witnessed several Kangana-specific developments.
First, the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) served a notice on the actress for carrying out alleged illegal extensions to her office premises at Bandra in north-west Mumbai.
Confirming that a notice had been issued to Kangana, BMC’s H-West Assistant Municipal Commissioner Vinayak Vispute said: “We have issued a notice to Kangana Ranaut. We have asked her to file a reply within 24 hours. Once the deadline is over, we will take appropriate action after going through her reply in the matter”.
Tuesday’s is the second notice that has been issued to her by the BMC. Two years ago, the BMC had issued her a notice relating to a different structure belonging to her.
The latest notice came 24 hours after a BMC team paid a surprise visit to her office and surveyed the premises at Bungalow No. 5, Chetan Row House, Nargis Dutt Road, Bandra West.
There was a bit of a drama near Kangana’s office when the BMC visited there. The actress’ staffers refused to accept the notice, prompting the BMC staffers to paste it outside her office.
In the notice, Kangana has among other things been ordered to stop the ongoing works inside her office premises of Manikarna Films and provide the necessary permissions for the construction, some of which was found to be allegedly unauthorised, within 24 hours.
The allegedly illegal works carried out by her include merging of two bungalow, converting a ground-floor toilet into an office cabin, converting a storeroom into a kitchen, making an unauthorised pantry in the ground floor, adding toilets near the storeroom and a parking area, illegal partitions in first floor living room, an illegal meeting room in the pooja room, converting a balcony into a habitable area besides a floor extension, etc.
Kangana bought the property three years ago. It is listed as a residential property by the BMC.
A combative Kangana responded to the BMC’s notice through a tweet that read: “Because of the criticism that received from my friends on social media, they didn’t come with a bulldozer today instead stuck a notice to stop leakage work that is going on in the office, friends I may have risked a lot but I find immense love and support from you all.”
On its part, the BMC has filed its reply in Dindoshi Sessions Court to vacate a stay order on its demolition notice issued in 2018 in a previous matter, to Kangana under the MRTP Act for carrying out illegal constructions in her Khar home.
In a related development, Maharashtra’s Home Minister Anil Deshmukh said on Wednesday that he had asked police to look into Kangana’s alleged statements that she consumed drugs.
Talking to mediapersons at the Vidhan Bhavan complex, Deshmukh said: “In an interview, Adhyayan Suman, the son of Shekhar Suman, who had a relationship with her, had made certain statements that Kangana Ranaut used to take drugs. The Mumbai Police will investigate this matter”.
Earlier, Deshmukh had made a similar statement in the Maharashtra Assembly responding to questions by two Shiv Sena MLAs Pratap Sarnaik and Sunil Prabhu.
“In the Assembly I have replied that she had relations with Adhyayan Suman, who said in an interview that she (Kangana) took drugs and also forced him to do so… Mumbai Police will look into all this in detail,” Deshmukh said.
On her part, Kangana responded swiftly. “I am more than happy to oblige @MumbaiPolice@AnilDeshmukhNCP please do my drug tests, investigate my call records if you find any links to drug peddlers ever I will accept my mistake and leave Mumbai forever, looking forward to meet you,” she tweeted.