REALITY star Payal Rohatgi was detained by Rajasthan Police on Sunday morning from her Ahmedabad residence for interrogation in a case relating to objectionable content against the Nehru-Gandhi family on social media and on Monday (today, December 16) she has been sent to judicial custody till December 24 by a metropolitan court.
The actress is expected to apply for bail on Tuesday. Her earlier appeal in The Bundi District Court had earlier rejected.
The case in question dates back to October 10, 2019, when a complaint was lodged by Congress worker Charmesh Sharma against Rohatgi for posting an objectionable video on Nehru and his family on Facebook and Twitter. Based on the complaint, the police had lodged a case against her under section 504, 505(2) of the IPC and started an investigation.
Bundi Superintendent of Police (SP) Mamta Gupta while speaking to the news agency IANS said, “Despite several notices sent to her, Rohatgi did not come to Bundi for interrogation. The notices were sent via email, posts and even a team was sent there to look for her. However, this time, the police team found her and hence she was arrested,”
Post her arrest, Rohatgi took to Twitter to share, “I am arrested by @PoliceRajasthan for making a video on #MotilalNehru which I made from taking information from @google… Freedom of Speech is a joke,” read a post on her Twitter handle.
Even her lawyer, Bhupedra Saxena while arguing Payal Rohatgi’s case in the court said that his client had freedom of expression that was guaranteed under the Constitution. He said, “Freedom of expression is a right guaranteed under the Constitution and whatever Payal Rohatgi said was not something of her own volition… she was quoting from MO Mathai’s book”.
Now that she is under arrest, police will be questioning her on why she made this video and what was her objective behind it. If found guilty Rohatgi might face imprisonment for up to 2 years.