New Delhi: The latest development in the dramatic confrontation between Bollywood actress Kangana Ranaut and the Maharashtra government over a tweet from the actress comparing Mumbai to PoK, resulted in the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) demolishing her Pali office Hill on Wednesday morning.
Meanwhile, the Bombay High Court granted a stay of the demolition of Kangana Ranaut’s office and asked the BMC to submit a response to the actor’s request.
Earlier in the day, BMC officials landed at their Mumbai office, fully prepared to demolish the “illegal construction,” as the actress boarded a flight to Mumbai from Chandigarh. Meanwhile, her lawyer, Rizwan Siddiqui, appeared before the Bombay High Court via videoconference seeking an order suspending the demolition.
Kangana Ranaut addressed the Bombay High Court on Wednesday challenging the notice issued by the Mumbai civic body for “illegal construction” on his bungalow, and requested a stay of the demolition process.
“We filed a petition this morning asking for an urgent hearing. We have requested a suspension of the demolition process as an interim relief,” Ranaut defender Rizwan Siddiqui told PTI.
Judge SJ Kathawalla was listening to a petition filed by Ranaut challenging the notice issued by the BMC for illegal construction on her bungalow. The petition also sought a suspension of the demolition process.
The court sought to know from BMC how he entered the premises and ordered him to submit an affidavit in response to the guilty plea.
The court has released the matter for hearing on Thursday.
Throughout her entire trip from Manali to Mumbai via Chandigarh, the actress remained active on social media and kept tweeting about BMC officials taking down her property.
The demolition notice was issued by BMC on Tuesday under section 351 of the MMC Act, and the civic body gave Kangana 24 hours to respond to the notice. On Tuesday, Kangana took to his social media and shared the copy of his lawyer Rizwan Siddiqui response to BMC’s notice about the demolition of his property in Mumbai.
Kangana got into trouble after his controversial comment on Pakistan-occupied Kashmir (Pok) on Twitter against the threat from Shiv Sena MP Sanjay Raut. She tweeted accusing Raut of threatening the actress not to return to Mumbai if she has no faith in the police.
The actress has been naming and shaming several prominent Bollywood celebrities for stoking nepotism and recently in the drug conspiracy related to the Sushant Singh Rajput case.
On Monday, the Ministry of the Interior (MHA) granted category Y security to Kangana. Sources told Zee News that seven policemen will take care of Kangana’s security. Officials from CRPF, the Intelligence Office and the Himachal Pradesh police arrived at Kangana’s home in Manali on Tuesday to map out the actress’s security plans ahead of her visit to Mumbai on September 9.
(With PTI inputs)
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