Thane: Marathi actor Ketaki Chitale, who was arrested on May 14 on the charge that a Facebook post defamed Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) chief Sharad Pawar, was remanded in judicial custody for 14 days by a Thane court on Wednesday. Chitale has moved for bail but her application is kept reserved by the court as the Thane police say the matter is important and is not submitted yet, the court said.
The bail will be heard by the court, on Thursday or the day after. The crime branch in the meantime has not found any information on advocate Nitin Bhave who wrote the lines Chitale had shared.
An officer from the crime branch said, “Chitale was sent to judicial custody for 14 days. We have recorded her statement and the investigation from her side is completed and she doesn’t know who Bhave is, or who had worded the post. Further, the technical investigation is going on for which our team, as well as the cyber team, is working on it.”
The officer added that the post is an old one from 2020 but they are not sure how and where she got it from. He added, “Chitale has deleted all her messages, we will send her devices to the forensic lab to retrieve the messages.”
Police teams from different stations in Pune and Mumbai visited the Thane crime branch on Wednesday to get the details of the case, told officials.
Crime branch Unit 1 senior police inspector A Deshmukh informed, “Chitale was taken for a medical check-up to JJ hospital for further procedure, she claimed that she has had seizures for more than 8 years. According to medical reports, she is completely fine and sent to Thane jail.”
Chitale was sent to police custody till May 18 on Sunday, following which the police on Monday took her to her Navi Mumbai residence and seized her laptop and mobile phone for further investigation.
Meanwhile, the Thane crime branch on Wednesday took custody of Nikhil Bhamre who was arrested by the Nashik police for posting humiliating messages against Pawar on his social media handle. He is a resident of Pingalwade in Nashik and was booked under sections 505, 506 of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) in Naupada police station. He was arrested by Nashik police and now the Thane crime branch has taken his custody. On Thursday, the team will produce him in the Thane court.