Police to arrest Rakhi Sawant over ‘objectionable’ remarks, failing to appear in court

A team from Punjab Police left for Mumbai on Monday to execute an arrest warrant issued by a Ludhiana court against controversial TV and Bollywood actress Rakhi Sawant.

The court issued the arrest warrant after Sawant failed to appear before it on March 9 in a case filed against her for making derogatory remarks against sage Valmiki, the author of the Ramayana which chronicles the life and times of Hindu god Lord Rama.

The court has summoned her after a complaint was filed against her for allegedly hurting religious sentiments of Valmiki community with her comments on a programme on a private television channel last year.

During a press conference, to exemplify how people and their situations change with time, Sawant had said that “Valmiki was once a murderer but later wrote the Ramayana”.

Comparing Valmiki to singer Mika Singh, who had forcibly kissed her during his birthday bash in 2014, Sawant said that like the Hindu sage, the singer had also now ‘changed’ and was ‘innocent’.

Sawant had failed to appear before the court during the last hearing held on 9 March despite the court issuing her repeated summons.

Although the next hearing of the case is scheduled for 10 April, a two-member team of the Ludhiana police left for Mumbai on Monday to arrest Sawant.

The actress, meanwhile, denied all allegations and charges against her.

“I am not Salman Khan, I am Rakhi Sawant. You won’t get anything by putting charges on me. I am a simple girl who does social work and work in movies,” she told ANI.

Sawant even claimed that she wasn’t aware of any arrest warrants issued against her, saying, “I too got to know from the media this morning that police is coming to arrest me.”

She even apologized for hurting the community’s sentiments. “Through ANI, I want to apologise to all the Valmiki community brothers and sisters, if I have hurt their sentiment. But this wasn’t my intention,” she said.