Author Ashish Kaul sends notice to police station seeking action against Kangana

Author Ashish Kaul, who has filed an FIR against actress Kangana Ranuat for violating copyright, on Wednesday sent a notice to Khar police station demanding action and clarification on why no police procedure has been initiated in the matter yet. Kaul had filed his FIR on 12 March.

The author’s advocates Ravish Zamindar and Yogita Joshi told IANS: “We have just served the Khar police station a notice to seek what has been done so far in MECR 1/2021, which was registered on 12/03/2021 against Kangana Ranaut and others. As per the Criminal Procedure Code of 1973, Section 41 onwards there are procedures on how a warrant or a notice is issued to any individual, when they are party to an FIR/MECR filed by the police station. It’s all guided by the law and this applies to all citizens. We are still unclear on the progress despite visiting the police station almost daily till the 15 March, 2021. Hence, we sent this notice and hope there is swift action taken as per the law of the land.”

When contacted, Kangana’s advocate Rizwan Siddiquee said that he doesn’t have any reaction in the matter currently.

Kaul filed the FIR against Kangana for announcing the film “Manikarnika Returns: The Legend Of Didda” without his approval. According to the author, his book “Didda: The Warrior Queen Of Kashmir” is the only written work that details the story of Queen Didda.

Talking exclusively to IANS earlier, Kaul had said: “Copyright Act protects exclusivity. This is a non-bailable offence, which amounts to three years of jail term as recent High Court order. Besides my book, there is only one book in the world that mentions Didda. That 3,000-page book, ‘Rajataringi’, only has two pages on Didda where they talk about her sexual life, and how she killed her son and infant grandsons. The narrative of her being a nationalist who nurtured the undivided India has been written by only me.“

The case has been filed against Kangana, her sister Rangoli Chandel, Kamal Kumar Jain and Manikarnika Films Private Limited. Kaul’s FIR was filed for infringement of the copyright and various other sections including 420, which amounts to criminal breach of trust, cheating, cheating with knowledge that wrongful loss may ensure to the person whose interest the offender is bound to protect, as well as cheating and dishonestly inducing delivery of property, punishable under Sections 406, 415, 418, 34, 120 B and 420 of the Indian Penal Code, read with Section 51, 63, 63A and other provision of The Copyright Act, 1957 and Section 65 of the Information Technology Act, 2000.