FIR against Payal Rohatgi for 'defamatory' video on Nehru-Gandhi

A First Information Report (FIR) has been filed against Bollywood actor Payal Rohatgi in Pune for an alleged defamatory video about the Nehru-Gandhi family. She has been booked under various sections of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) including Section 500, 505(2), and 34. Rohatgi has also been charged under Section 153A, which pertains to spreading communal disharmony.

The 36-year-old was reported to be using objectionable language against Mahatma Gandhi and former Prime Ministers of India, Jawaharlal Nehru, Indira Gandhi, and Rajiv Gandhi.

The complaint has been filed by members of the Pune Congress Committee at the Shivaji Nagar police station in the city.

Pune City Congress spokesperson Ramesh Iyer said that Rohtagi had repeatedly used derogatory language for the Nehru-Gandhi family in a video she shared on social media. He added that he, along with “the office-bearers of the Pune City Congress committee, including Ramesh Bagwe, Mohan Joshi, Datta Bahirat and Sangeeta Tiwari” met with senior police officials from the cybercrime cell to register a formal complaint.

This is not the first time Rohatgi has been booked for defamatory comments by the police.

In 2019, the former Bigg Boss participant was detained by Rajasthan police for a video in which she used derogatory language for the Nehru-Gandhi family, including Motilal Nehru, Jawaharlal Nehru, and others. She was booked under the Information Technology (IT) Act for the objectionable content. The actor was later granted bail by a local court in the state.

Rohatgi had later claimed that her arrest was “politically motivated” and part of a “conspiracy” by the Congress state government. In June this year, she was arrested from her residential society in Ahmedabad after an FIR was registered against her for allegedly using derogatory language against the society’s residents and the chairman. Residents claimed that she had used indecent language and abused them on various occasions.

Rohatgi was booked under various IPC sections including 294 b for obscenity, 504 for intentional insult, 506 for criminal intimidation, and sections of the IT Amendment Act