On Thursday, an FIR was lodged in Muzaffarpur, Bihar against 49 imminent personalities for writing an open letter to Prime minister Modi on frequent mob lynchings.
The 49 celebrities include historian Ramchandra Guha and filmmakers Mani Ratnam, Anurag Kashyap and Aparna Sen. The FIR is lodged after an order was passed by Chief Judicial Magistrate Surya Kant Tiwari two months ago on a petition filed by local advocate Sudhir Kumar Ojha.
The celebs are booked under sections which include sedition, public nuisance, hurting religious feelings and insulting with an intent to provoke breach of peace.
In their letter to Modi in July the public figures claimed that the “Jai Shri Ram” slogan had become a “provocative war cry” and the reason for a number of lynchings.
“Regrettably ‘Jai Shri Ram’ has become a provocative ‘war-cry’ today that leads to law and order problems, and many lynchings take place in its name,” the signatories had told the prime minister. “It is shocking that so much violence should be perpetrated in the name of religion! These are not the Middle Ages! The name of Ram is sacred to many in the majority community of India. As the highest Executive of this country, you must put a stop to the name of Ram being defiled in this manner.”
Some of the other prominent names who signed the letter are filmmakers Ravathy, Anurag Kashyap, Adoor Gopalakrishnan, Shyam Benegal, author Amit Chaudhuri, scholar Ashis Nandy, and actor Konkona Sen Sharma.
Sudhir Kumar Ojha- the petitioner
Muzaffarpur based lawyer Sudhir Kumar Ojha has a penchant for filing cases on celebrities, activists, and politicians. His favorite target is film stars who are “hurting religious sentiments” or for posting “obscene pictures”. He is known to be a publicity monger and it has also helped him establish his practice.
Among the list of people, he has filed cases are Shahrukh Khan and his wife Gauri Khan and Alia Bhatt for the song “Radha teri chunri” of the move Student of the year for hurting religious sentiments. He has filed cases against Amitabh Bachchan, Aishwarya Rai Bachchan, Abhishek Bachchan, Hrithik Roshan and Salman Khan.
He has filed against actresses Bipasha Basu, Katrina Kaif, Vidya Balan and Bihar girl Sonakshi Sinha for “obscene photographs”.
He always seems to target the opposition government. He has filed cases against Sushil Kumar Modi, Anna Hazare, Arvind Kejriwal, and even Lalu Yadav.
He has also filed cases against Ex-Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and Sachin Tendulkar. Ojha has filed a criminal complaint case against the Prime Minister, challenging the decision to award the Bharat Ratna to the cricket maestro. He has charged the Prime Minister with hurting “people’s sentiments”.
He has also filed a case against Congress leader Sonia Gandhi to apologize before the court for being depicted as a goddess in the Moradabad Congress office.
In the present case, he has accused the celebrities of tarnishing the country’s image, and undermining ‘the impressive performance of the prime minister’ and “supporting secessionist tendencies”.
Social media reacts
-Raise Voice against mod lynching, Face FIR
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-Raise voice against Chinmayanand, Face FIR
Welcome to Naz! ERA people, where sane voices are crushed.
— Nенr_wно™ (@Nehr_who) October 4, 2019
Writing to PM against Mob Lynching amounts to Sedition. Will calling Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi a ‘Traitor’ earn a Padma Award or nomination to Rajya Sabha in New India?
— Tushar (@TusharG) October 4, 2019
FIR has been lodged against celebrities for writing open letter to PM over concern of mob lynchings.
All 7 accused in Pehlu Khan lynching case have been acquitted.
New India.
— Millennial Vasooli Bai (@Vishj05) October 4, 2019
Lynching is not a crime but stand against lynching is. Rape is not a crime but complaining about rape is…yes this is new in India and this is New India.
— St. Sinner (@retheeshraj10) October 4, 2019
Rahul Gandhi who was in Wayanad to meet youth protesting against the travel ban on Bandipur National Highway 766 also commented on the increasingly authoritarian state country is going towards.
I met with members of the press in Wayanad, earlier today. I’m attaching a short video with highlights of that interaction. pic.twitter.com/MA9aDNB93V
— Rahul Gandhi (@RahulGandhi) October 4, 2019
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