The Bombay High Court on Wednesday stayed the demolition of Kangana Ranaut’s property in Mumbai after the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation began the process of bringing down alleged alterations to the Bollywood actor’s bungalow and office building.
The matter will be heard at 3pm on Thursday, her lawyer said, adding that Kangana will file criminal proceedings against erring BMC officials who carried out the demolition activity at her property.
Kangana took to Twitter to constantly update what was happening at her office premises in Bandra. Terming the act as “death of democracy”, the National Award-winning actor questioned how BMC officials could authorise the demolition when such procedures were suspended till September 30 amid the COVID-19 pandemic.
She tweeted that “Bullywood” can see what fascism looks like after the Shiv Sena-controlled BMC began the demolition process. The hashtag #deathofdemocracy was also trending on Wednesday before her plea was heard by the court.
The BMC on Tuesday served a ‘stop-work’ notice on Kangana’s property in Mumbai for alleged unauthorised construction in her office, taking note of several “illegal” alterations and 14 violations.
Kangana’s lawyer said that BMC officials did not even wait to reject her reply to the notice and began the demotion work before she reached Mumbai from Chandigarh.
The 33-year-old further said that the Maharashtra government was targeting her for her comments on Mumbai and her ongoing war of words with the Shiv Sena.
Sena leader Sanjay Raut had told Kangana not to return to Mumbai after she said she feared living in the city and it felt like “Pakistan-occupied Kashmir”. She also tweeted that Raut was issuing open threats to her.
