Varun Grover, Vir Das Support Comedian Who Got Arrested For 'Indecent' Remarks On Hindu Gods
Just like regular days, there was a comedy show being held at a cafe in 56 Dukan area of Indore on Friday. There were jokes and an audience who laughed at it. Some got offended to an extent that the comedian was reportedly thrashed, taken to a Police station where a complaint was registered against him and others, and he was thereby arrested.?
The standup comedian was Munawar Faruqui, who hails from Gujarat. He was arrested along with four others--identified as Edwin Anthony, Prakhar Vyas, Priyam Vyas and Nalin Yadav--after Eklavya Singh Gaur (36), the son of a BJP MLA Malini Laxman Singh Gaur, filed a police complaint against them for passing indecent remarks about Hindu Gods and Union Home Minister Amit Shah during the show. A local court rejected their bail pleas and sent them in judicial custody.
Gaur, who is the convener of local outfit Hind Rakshak, said that he and his associates had gone to watch the show. When they heard the "indecent" comments, they forced the organizers to stop the program.
"The show mocked Hindu deities by passing indecent comments. The Godhra incident and Union Home Minister Amit Shah were also mentioned inappropriately. We shot a video and stopped the show by taking the audience out of the cafe."
"Then we caught the comedians and organizers of the show and took them to Tukoganj police station," he said.
He also alleged that the social distancing norm was flouted during the show.?At least 100 viewers were sitting in the small hall of the cafe, he said. While reports claim that Faruqui was beaten up,?Gaur denied media reports that Faruqui was beaten up by the activists of Hind Rakshak.
A case was filed late on Friday night against Munawar Faruqui, a resident of Junagadh in Gujarat and four Indore-based persons based on a written complaint filed by Gaur," in-charge of Tukoganj police station Kamlesh Sharma said.Gaur also submitted video footage of the show, he added."All the five accused were later arrested," he said.
As per PTI,?Chief Judicial Magistrate (CJM) Aman Singh Bhuria refused to grant bail to Faruqui and other four and remanded them in judicial custody till Jan 13.
Comedians like Varun Grover and Vir Das have extended support to?Munawar Faruqui.?
The Sacred Games writer shared a video where the comedian is trying to reason with Eklavya Singh Gaur, son of local BJP MLA Malini Laxman Singh Gaur, who had filed the complaint.?
"A fellow Indian, a fellow comedian is in jail and got beaten up by a mob because of the words he uttered. Here he's trying to logically, calmly present his case but our systems now just want to brutally silence every voice.?
? "They don't want to hear, they don't want to even argue - they want to simply erase every shred of individual thought, every iota of reason. And we the people of the greatest civilization of earth are ok with it," Grover wrote on his Instagram story.??
Faruqui's lawyer Anshuman Shrivastava said the FIR had been registered with political motive and cited the constitutional provisions of freedom of speech to defend the comedians.?Gaur's lawyer Dinesh Pandey opposed bail applications, saying the show was held without the administration's permission and it hurt religious feelings.
