Twitter on Thursday suspended the handle of Rangoli Chandel, the sister of actor Kangana Ranaut, after she called for shooting dead "mullas and secular media".
Chandel had made the offensive tweet on Wednesday following an incident of stone-pelting in Moradabad in which a doctor and two other members of a medical team were injured. The medical team had gone to collect samples from residents to test for presence of COVID-19. A person who attended the Tablighi Jamaat event in Nizamuddin in March had died of COVID-19 in Moradabad earlier this week and 17 others had tested positive.
Chandel tweeted that "police and doctors went to check their families (of COVID-19 patients) they were attacked and killed... make these mullas + secular medias stand in a line and shoot them dead... they call us Nazis... who cares, life is more imp than fake image".
Chandel was immediately called out for the offensive content of the tweet, but she remained unapologetic until Thursday.
Designer Farah Ali Khan was among those who called for action against Chandel. Tagging the Mumbai Police Twitter handle, Farah tweeted, "Arrest this woman immediately for spreading vicious hatred and calling for killings of A community". Farah later tweeted, "Condemning the people who attacked doctors is a MUST. But to say that their kind and the secular media to be made to stand in line and SHOT DEAD is NOT done.That’s HATE & those that stand for that I feel sorry for you.I will NOT respond to your hatred as I will simply MUTE u".
Rangoli Chandel, who describes herself as the spokesperson for Kangana Ranaut, has been in the news for her sensationalistic tweets, often picking fights with figures in the movie industry. Last week, Chandel had tweeted asking for calling off the 2024 elections and giving another term for Prime Minister Narendra Modi to avoid wasting money given the need for funds to fight coronavirus.