Section 503 of the Indian Penal code defines a personal committing criminal intimidation as, “Whoever threatens another with any injury to his person, reputation or property, or to the person or reputation of any one in whom that person is interested, with intent to cause alarm to that person, or to cause that person to do any act which he is not legally bound to do, or to omit to do any act which that person is legally entitled to do, as the means of avoiding the execution of such threat, commits criminal intimidation.”
Our nation saw Mahipal Singh Makrana, the president of Rajput Karni Sena stating, "If a woman who belongs to a different country, who has Swedish citizenship, says something bad about the character of our women, and tries to provoke us, then just as Shri Ram’s brother Lakshman, over a 1000 years ago, taught Surpanakha, a woman from Sri Lanka a lesson by chopping off her nose, we too will be forced to do this to you. Rajputs don’t raise their hands on women, but don’t challenge us."
Makrana's statement is undeniably an open threat to Deepika Padukone. Makrana was factually incorrect too. Deepika Padukone was born in Denmark, not Sweden. Makrana's threat is an open threat to assault a woman for having an opinion is hard to overlook. It is criminal intimidation. Bollywood film fraternity is surprised that no action is being taken against those openly issuing threats to Padmavati crew.
Today, Bollywood actress Bhagyashree came out in support of Deepika Padukone. She tweeted, "And he isnt arrested??? Isn't this a publicly issued threat? @deepikapadukone is an "actress". Doesn't he know what 'acting' means!"
In another tweet, Bhagyashree said, "I can't believe how Padmavati can be an issue for national debate. Its a film...leave it for the audience to decide. Aren't there more important things happening in our country!!!"