After a criminal complaint was filed before a Delhi court seeking action against OTT platform Amazon Prime Video and the makers of web series Tandav, another complaint has been registered in Noida. The complaint names actors Saif Ali Khan and Dimple Kapadia, along with Amazon Prime Video.
The first complaint was filed by Vishnu Gupta, founder of right-wing outfit Hindu Sena, under Section 200 of the Code of Criminal Procedure (CrPC). It alleges that the web series is provoking communal disharmony and hurts the sentiments of Hindus. It also seeks the summoning, commencing trial and punishing of those named in the complaint.
The matter is likely to come up for hearing on 23 January.
The complaint has named Tandav director Ali Abbas Zafar; India head of original content for Amazon Prime Video, Aparna Purohit; producer Himanshu Krishna Mehra; writer Gaurav Solanki; and actors Saif Ali Khan, Mohammed Zeeshan Ayyub and Gauhar Khan as the accused.
"The 'Tandav' web series is inciting and provoking communal disharmony and sentiments of the Hindus. The accused through their web series have targeted the government of India and the government of Uttar Pradesh," the plea states.
"The web series has, without any legal justification, shown the police are doing illegal encounters of Muslims under the government of Uttar Pradesh with the mala-fide and criminal intention to defame the government of Uttar Pradesh and create an atmosphere of hatred between Muslims and Hindus," it added.
A separate criminal complaint has also been filed against 96 people associated with Tandav in a court in Bihar's Muzaffarpur. "Tandav has been made with an intention to hurt religious sentiments and spread caste-based discrimination," wrote the complainant, lawyer Sudhir Kumar Ojha, as per ANI.
Additionally, an FIR has been filed in Lucknow's Hazratganj Kotwali against the makers of Tandav. BJP leaders had earlier called for a ban on the web series, which released on Amazon Prime Videon on 15 January, for allegedly hurting religious sentiments. They appear to have taken offence at a scene in which Zeeshan Ayyub's character performs a play as Shiva.
(With inputs from IANS)
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