Bollywood actor Kamaal R Khan approached the Bombay High Court to cancel an FIR filed against him in 2017 for an allegedly offensive tweet about Dhanush. He claims the case is baseless, filed with “malicious intent,” and violates his right to free speech.
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MUMBAI: Bollywood actor and self-proclaimed film critic Kamaal R Khan has filed a petition in the Bombay High Court to cancel a First Information Report (FIR) registered against him in 2017. The case is related to an allegedly offensive tweet he posted about Tamil actor Dhanush.
The FIR was lodged at Bandra Police Station under Section 509 of the Indian Penal Code (IPC), which deals with words, gestures, or acts intended to insult a woman’s modesty. It accuses Khan of making derogatory remarks about Dhanush and his co-actors.
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Through his lawyer Sana Raees Khan, Kamaal R Khan has claimed that the FIR was filed “maliciously” and has no strong legal basis. He has requested the court to stop all legal proceedings against him until the petition is decided.
“The petitioner is an innocent man falsely and maliciously implicated in the present case with no fault on his part,”
-Khan’s plea states.
Khan, who is a resident of Mumbai but currently lives in Dubai, has said that he was unaware of the FIR for three years and only came to know about it in 2020.
The case is based on a tweet posted by Khan in 2017, where he allegedly wrote:
“I can’t understand how can any girl allow this bhanggi dhanushraja to even touch her Yukkki! He is really dirty,”
This tweet also had a picture of Dhanush along with another “obscene image.” Many people saw this tweet as a personal attack on Dhanush, leading to the FIR under Section 509 IPC.
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However, Khan has argued that he never intended to insult any woman. He has stated that his tweet was not directed at any female and did not contain any gesture that could be seen as an insult to a woman’s modesty.
Therefore, according to him, the offence under Section 509 IPC is not “prima facie made out” in this case.
Khan has also raised concerns about the lack of details in the FIR. He has pointed out that the complaint does not mention the exact Twitter handle, the specific tweet, or the date when it was posted.
Moreover, Khan has questioned the legal validity of the FIR, arguing that it was registered by a police officer instead of an “aggrieved person,” which makes it legally weak.
Another major point in his petition is the delay in informing him about the FIR. Although it was filed in 2017, he was only informed about it in 2020. He has also noted that even after more than seven years, no chargesheet has been filed in the case.
Even if the tweet was inappropriate, Khan insists that it should still be protected under the right to free speech given by the Indian Constitution.
The Bombay High Court’s Division Bench is expected to hear the matter this week.
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