Objectionable post against Sharad Pawar: I was attacked, beaten, molested inside jail, says actress Ketaki Chitale

Marathi actress Ketaki Chitale, who was jailed over an alleged Facebook post on politician Sharad Pawar, called her arrest unfair and illegal and claimed that she was molested during her custody.

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MUMBAI: Marathi actress Ketaki Chitale, who was arrested for allegedy sharing an objectionable Facebook post on NCP chief Sharad Pawar, claimed that she was abused and molested while she was odged in a prison in adjoining Thane district. The actor got bail late last month, more than a month after being arrested over the controversial social media post. 

Speaking to News18, Ketaki said, "I was molested while I was in jail. I was beaten up and some black poisonous ink was thrown at me." The actress also alleged harassment by NCP workers claiming that they beat her while she was in the cutsody. 

"I look back and think as to how weird our justice system is, how unfair, how unlawfully I was picked up from my place and thrown behind bars for just copy-pasting someone else’s poem, they were not even my words. And is this how India is going to work? Isn’t it illegal to just pick someone up, without any prior intimation, without any notice given, without any arrest warrant? And it was just a post. It wasn’t even as if I was targeting somebody. People interpreted it to be Mr Sharad Pawar and they just picked me up and there were 22 FIRs. Whenever I think about it, that is what comes to my mind," she told the news channel.

Ketaki Chitale claimed that NCP workers thrashed her, threw toxic black colour, eggs on her

"I was just picked up, taken into custody. Then the custody changed hands. From Kalamboli I was given to Thane police custody. And I was beaten up by NCP females who were there. They were a mob of about 20 people along with reporters. Of course, reporters did not harass me. But they (NCP workers) threw colour at me. They say it is ink, but it wasn’t ink. It was that toxic black colour, which is extremely harmful to our skin. They threw that colour at me, they threw eggs, while in police custody. What was the police doing, inside the police compound? It is illegal, unlawful," she said. 

Marathi actress says she was molested, hit on her breat during custody

Not only me being attacked, harassed, beaten, molested…I was molested, you know…My pallu fell down. I was wearing a sari, my pallu fell down, someone tripped me over, hit me, hit my right breast, and when they hit me, I fell into the police car, and so my sari went up, my pallu fell down…And, OK, I understand you are angry or whatever it is, but being a female they are molesting another female. Are these people who should be representing us in future?” she said in the interview.

Ketaki Chitale faces a total of 22 FIRs lodged at various districts in Maharashtra. She was arrested on May 14 in an FIR lodged at Kalwa police station and was granted bail in the last week of June by a Thane court. The actress hd urged the Bomay High Court to quash the FIR, declare her arrest as illegal and violative of her fundamental rights and release her from jail forthwith.

Chitale (29) was arrested on May 14 and booked under various Indian Penal Code sections for defamation and promoting enmity between different groups on grounds of religion and race. The film and TV actor was arrested by the Thane police last month over the post she allegedly shared on her Facebook page, which was in verse form and purportedly written by someone else.

It contained phrases like 'hell is waiting' and 'you hate Brahmins', allegedly referring to Pawar, whose party shares power in Maharashtra with the Shiv Sena and Congress.