Former Bigg Boss contestant Payal Rohatgi, who had been arrested by the Rajasthan police for allegedly making a video on Molilal Nehru, has been sent to judicial custody for eight days by a local court in Bundi.
After being detained by the cops on Sunday, the actor and model had taken to Twitter to claim that she made the video on Motilal Nehru after taking information from Google, but was arrested for the same. “Freedom of speech is a joke,” Payal wrote.
Many politicians and celebrities had termed her arrest as “unwise.” Shashi Tharoor took to Twitter to say that though Rohatgi’s comments are “tasteless and false”, but to arrest her is “unwise.”
Filmmaker Reema Kagti also expressed her opinion, saying that she never agreed with Payal Rohatgi but “that’s no reason to arrest someone in a democracy.”
Check out some other reactions by lawyer Apar Gupta, journalist Paranjoy Guha Thakurta and Rahul Easwar.
In October, an FIR was filed against Rohatgi for allegedly insulting Motilal Nehru, and defaming Kamala Nehru (father and wife, respectively, of India’s first prime minister, Jawaharlal Nehru). The allegations pertained to a video posted on her Facebook page in September this year.
The case, filed by Youth Congress leader Charmesh Sharma in Boondi, Rajasthan, also alleged that the video could hamper India’s relations with other nations as it included objectionable comments, with pictures, in the context of former Prime Minister Lal Bahadur Shastri’s death.
Payal had apologised to the Congress party for the video. However, she alleged that that there were orders from “higher up,” that is, on the orders of “Sonia Gandhi or Priyanka Gandhi,” she is being targeted.
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