Bombay HC grants anticipatory bail to makers of ‘Tandav’

The Bombay High Court on Wednesday granted three-week transit pre-arrest bail to Ali Abbas Zafar, the director of net collection ‘Tandav’, who had been booked by Lucknow Police for allegedly depicting Hindu deities in a poor gentle on the present. The filmmaker moved the HC searching for common anticipatory bail.
A single-judge bench of Justice Prakash D Naik additionally granted related aid to Aparna Purohit, head of content material, India, Amazon Prime, together with producer Himanshu Krishna Mehra and author Gaurav Solanki.
The Lucknow Police filed an FIR towards the makers of the net collection on a criticism by Senior Sub-Inspector Amar Nath Yadav, claiming Hindu gods had been portrayed in a foul gentle. Purohit was additionally named within the FIR filed at Hazratganj police station.
The filmmakers and the others have been booked beneath IPC sections 153 A (selling enmity between totally different teams on grounds of faith, race, place of origin, residence, language), 295 (injuring or defiling place of worship with intent to insult the faith of any class), 505 (1) (B) (public mischief with intent to trigger concern or alarm) and 469 (forgery for function of harming status), in addition to provisions of Information Technology Act.

The plea filed by the makers said, “The applicants have come to learn that the said FIR was registered on January 17, 2021 at 11.46 pm and that the police authorities of the concerned police station are currently travelling to Mumbai to arrest the applicants in pursuance of the same.”
The candidates moved excessive court docket, apprehending arrest. Their counsel submitted that the content material in query has been eliminated and the makers don’t need to give rise to any additional controversy.
The plea additional said, “The web-series is a work of fiction and is an Indian Hindi political drama showcasing coming together of different worlds under the gamut of politics. It is a dramatic take of the powerplay between people at the high level to secure their position(s). The web-series and the characters thereof in no manner depict/portray/represent any gods and/or goddesses of any religion whatsoever.”

The candidates, by senior counsel Aabad Ponda and advocate Aniket Nikam, submitted that the FIR additional doesn’t make any direct/oblique allegations towards them of their particular person capacities. “The FIR also does not portray any role/intent whatsoever to the applicant for having committed any offence, under which the FIR is registered,” their plea learn. They additional famous that not one of the allegations talked about within the FIR makes out any offence for which it was filed.
Additional Public Prosecutor Yogesh Nakhwa opposed the plea, saying the candidates ought to seem earlier than a court docket in Hazratganj and search related a aid as a substitute of approaching the HC.
After listening to submissions on each side, Justice Naik granted transitory anticipatory bail of three-week to the 4 candidates in order that they might method a court docket in Lucknow for normal pre-arrest bail.